A Teacher's Resource Guide: Fairy Tales: Grades K-2

How do you engage students in literature? You introduce stories that are engaging and filled with adventure, magic, heroes, villains, repeated themes, similar structure, and predictable, desirable endings. The fairy tale structure gives students a strong foundation in narrative. When planning instruction based on Common Core State Standards, fairy tales fill an instructional need. Use this guide to introduce these traditional stories to your students and help them delve into the elements that make these tales universal and a strong basis for instruction! Inside this guide, you will find: • tips for embedding fairy tales into genre studies. • methods for linking fairy tale retellings and connections to other literature. • an overview that links fairy tales to standards-based instruction. • blackline masters that help your students analyze such story elements as plot, character, and universal themes in fairy tales. • strategies for using fairy tales as the basis for foundational skills and language instruction. • writing assignments explicitly linked to fairy tales. • speaking and listening activities that link fairy tales to classroom discussion and readers theater.