The Snow Queen is a lesser-known tale by Hans Christian Andersen. It’s a collection of stories, really. The first is about a mirror made by an evil sprite, which shows everything reflected in it at its worst. This mirror is broken, and bits of it fly into people’s eyes… Continue reading
“The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is the story of a young shepherd. Growing bored with his work, he shouts “Wolf!” to make the townspeople come running. He laughs at them and at their anger when they find he has tricked them. He repeats the joke, so at last when a wolf… Continue reading
Hansel and Gretel is a good, horrible fairy tale for when you want a creepy story. The University of Pittsburgh collection contains the basic Grimm’s version. The story is certainly among the most familiar of fairy tales. A poor woodcutter and his wife, faced with starvation, abandon their two children… Continue reading
A ballad is a poem that tells a story, typically sung, though we often just read ballads in English classes. We have a ballad for you to work with, “The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry.” It’s in a video at the bottom of this post, if you’d like to… Continue reading
The Teeny Tiny Woman” is sort of a ghost story and it is sort of spooky. There is not a great deal of story to it. A teeny tiny woman finds a bone and takes it home to make soup. The owner of the bone requests its return, repeatedly, in… Continue reading
The Little Red Hen is a familiar story, and one that all kids ought to know. In the story, the Little Red Hen plants wheat, harvests it, and bakes bread to feed her family. At every stage, she asks for help, saying “Who will help me plant the wheat?” and so on.… Continue reading
“East of the Sun and West of the Moon” is a Norwegian tale, though some say it has Celtic roots. The two cultures are not so far apart geographically and not without trade, so both claims may be correct. This is a less familiar fairy tale, which makes it a… Continue reading
Let’s read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The title links you to a simple, traditional telling of the story, with pictures. In the story, a little girl named Goldilocks goes into the house of a bear family and tastes their porridge (which they have left cooling while they went for… Continue reading
We’ve posted lots of serious fairy tale lesson plans for you, and any of them can give you plenty of ideas for creating a fairy tale theme for your classroom. Fairy tales include heroes, villains, helpers, difficult choices, good and evil, challenges, and consequences. They make an extremely versatile… Continue reading
The Emperor’s New Clothes is a fun story, with little magic and nothing scary in it. The title links to Virginia Lee Burton’s classic picture book. The Emperor’s New Clothes: A Tale Set in China is Demi’s version. Susanna Davidson has done a simpler version with very funny pictures younger… Continue reading
