1. Creating fairy
tales
University of Macedonia
Collaborative storytelling and
poetry pedagogy

2. A cultural journey into traditional fairy tales in Europe

3. This activity aims at
• Increasing empathy
• Understanding different
cultures
• Raising cultural awareness
• Refining story telling skills
• Building collaboration skills

4. Students will develop the following skills

5. Students’ Profile
Age:8-12 years old
From all the countries
of the Europe
With a vivid interest in:
Exploring, imagining,
understanding the other
cultures , learning,
relearning and
unlearning, thinking and
rethinking, imagining
Audience

6. Main goal
Goal: building a community of trust, encouraging expression and sharing of
worries and ideas, fostering interactions, building empathy, encouraging
creativity, empowering critical thinking skills and imagination.
Cognitive
Acquiring
knowledge about
different cultures
Affective
Understanding
different cultures,
understanding
oneself and the
other, building
empathy skills,
learning to live
together
Competencies
Exploring different
cultures,
understanding fairy
tales of other
cultures and relating
them with local
ones, painting,
developing and
writing a fairy tale, a
story map

7. Use of ICT:
web searching
Participatory
approaches
Physical presence
in a classroom
Working in
mixed ability
teams
Methodology
Learner-
centered
perspective

8. Warming-up (15-30΄)
Equipment:
-interactive
whiteboard
-Brainstorming
activity
● The teacher discusses with the whole
classroom about the fairy tales they know.
● The teacher plays on youtube the short video
“Top 5: Fairy tale movies” and asks the
students:
- Have you ever seen these fairy tale movies?
- What is your favorite fairy tale?
- What is its origin country? Do you know?
- Do you know fairy tales of your country?
- Is there a fairy tale that you ever heard from
family members?

9. 1st Step (90΄)
● The teacher visits with his/her students the
school library and encourages the children to
choose the book with their most liked fairy tale.
● He also encourages them to bring their own fairy
tale to the classroom.
● The teacher invites the students to tell all the
class the plot of the story and the reasons for
their choice. The teacher encourages the
students to present their story.

10. 2nd Step: (60’)
Equipment:
-interactive
whiteboard
 the teacher presents the link:
https://europeisnotdead.com/european-
fairy-tales/ where students can read fairy
tales from many European countries
 The teacher shows the video: “Elements of
a fairy tale” and ask the students:
 Do you recognize some basic elements
such as special beginning, magic power,
talking animals ?
 Have you ever written a fairy tale on your
own?

11. The teacher:
● Divides the students into pairs in a playful way
● Gives each pair the name of one European
country and the students have to
a) find a fairy tale from this country
b) underline with markers the basic
elements of the fairy tale
● Helps the students to print their fairy tale and
gives hints when is needed.
3rd step: working on a European fairy tale (60-70’)
Equipment: pen and paper,
markers, pencils, printer, laptops
or PCs , one per team

12. 4th Step: Filling in the form with the elements of a fairy tale (45΄)
● The teacher projects the video: “Elements of
a fairy tale” (https://youtu.be/SXYA6LAtzog,
7 min)
● The teacher discusses with the students
about the elements of the fairy tale chosen
(ex: the teacher sees if students have
underlined the right points in the fairy tale) and
● gives each pair a form “Elements of a fairy
tale” with gaps to fill in.
Interactive white
board, pen and
paper,
markers, pencils,

13. form “Elements of a fairy tale”

14. 5th Step (90΄)
Equipment:
-Laptops or
PCs, one per
team.
-pen and paper
● The teacher divides the class into groups of 3 to 6
students
● Each group have to create an imaginative fairy tale
● Each fairy tale have to contain: “the elements of a fairy
tale” and some ideas from traditional myths or legends of
European countries.
● The teacher invites the students to search the internet
for fairy tales by European writers
● During the activity, the teacher acts as facilitator,
discusses with students about the form of the story, the
setting, and helps them with any problems they might
encounter

15. Optional step:
Making a story map of the fairy tale
● Writing fairy tales could be replaced by
creating story maps. In this case,
children would record the main events of
their fairy tale and sequence those
events.
The aim of this step
is to recap the main
cultural elements
and moral messages
the local/national
myths had.
Spontaneity and
freedom of
expression are
encouraged.