Hello! Guess what? I know what day it is. Do you know WHY I know what day it is?
Because I OFFICIALLY report back to school on Wednesday.
And the kids are coming a week from Monday.
So yeah.
Yep.
And I have a lot of work to do before then — I mean, I am only halfway through Season Two of The Handmaid’s Tale!! I have got to get busy!
ANYWHO.
As you all know, I write little plays – Reader’s Theater, if you will – for my class, and then I put those plays in my TpT store. It’s sort of a passion of mine. Writing. Drama. Plays. All of it. I’ve presented on that topic and that topic only a couple of different times, too. Call me fancy pants.
And, people, I’ve got it all. I’ve got three levels (Kinder, Beginning Readers, Advanced Readers), every season, two partner plays, three partner plays, plays for any time of the year, phonics based plays . . . I’ve got it.
BUT! No matter what edition I add, I always get requests from people to please please please make a fairy tale and/or fable edition.
Over and over. I’d say it is the most requested product of anything I’ve ever gotten.
Well, here it is. I did it.
Sample Page 🙂
I held off for so long because 1) I didn’t really have clip art for it (thanks to Creating4 the Classroom, now I do) and 2) I don’t really like fairy tales and fables.
I know!
Don’t kill me!
I am just not that big of a fan. I don’t know! What’s wrong with me? Because apparently, I am in the minority! It appears as if teachers really love them. Like, A LOT.
I started writing these plays for Beginning Readers and I had to “adapt” them so that beginning readers could be successful. I couldn’t just put words like boiling cauldron or porridge or ungrateful all over the place, ya know?
And let me tell you . . . as I was “adapting” these, I figured out why I don’t really like fairy tales. I guess fables are okay. They teach a lesson, although, to tell you the truth, I find them a bit boring. Give me Ruthie and the Not So Teeny Tiny Lie
any day of the week to teach a lesson and I’ll be all over it!
But fairy tales?
They don’t teach a lesson that I can think of. In fact, they’re a bit creepy!!!
Take Goldilocks and the Three Bears, for instance.
Goldilocks breaks into their house, eats their food, breaks their furniture, and takes a nap in their bed.
WHO DOES THAT?
Seriously, who? And we want kids to hear this because . . . what? Why?
I also adapted The Three Little Pigs. And I get it. The wolf should not have been blowing down their houses. And if you’ve read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, then you’d know maybe it was all accident in the first place.
But.
The ending? Have you read the ending?! The wolf DIES a horrible death. He dies BY FIRE.
And meanwhile, we’re just reading this to kids? La la la, and then the wolf dies, boys and girls. Ready for recess?
What?
The Gingerbread Boy? You make a delicious cookie that comes to life and you want to eat this LIVING thing? That’s talking? And running? Isn’t that a little disgusting? I mean, I love cookies, especially chocolate chip and ones with frosting, but if one of them were to come alive, I think I’d be turned off a little.
In the end, that poor gingerbread boy is eaten by the fox!
Jack and the Beanstalk has taken on a whole new meaning for me. That giant living at the top of the beanstalk is just living his best life. He’s got gold coins, a hen that lays golden eggs, and he has a golden harp! GOLD everything, plus his mama lives with him. Go Giant! What a wonderful life!
And then BAM! Here comes Jack just taking all his stuff. STEALING. And we think the Giant is wrong? WHAT?! Of course he’s mad. Wouldn’t you be mad? I’d be mad.
But nope. Jack just steals all of his stuff and when the Giant has finally had enough and chases after him, Jack chops the beanstalk down with an ax and you guessed it. The Giant dies.
WHAT IN THE WORLD?!
I couldn’t even adapt Hansel and Gretel.
I could NOT.
I had the clip art for it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Scary witch?! Kids in the oven?! WHAT?!
FOR REAL?!
Shudder.
Well, I created some.
I adapted the following fairy tales/fables:
The Gingerbread Man
Goldilocks
Stone Soup
Jack and the Beanstalk
Tortoise and the Hare
Three Little Pigs
Country Mouse and City Mouse
Little Red Hen
Billy Goats Gruff
The Ugly Duckling
Now I’m getting questions on whether or not I’ll make a set for Kinder and Advanced Readers.
Yes. I will. I don’t know when exactly, but hopefully soon. First, I have to get over the trauma of the first set.
In the meantime, the Beginning Readers set is 20% off so that you get the Bundle price even though it’s not in a bundle yet.
What do you think of fairy tales? Am I crazy? Is it just me?!
Note: This post contains affiliate links. This means that, at no cost to you, I earn money should you choose to make a purchase through the links.
First of all, I am so sorry that your summer is over already! I have one more week before I report back, a week and half until my new batch of littles (TK) descends…..and I know I am not ready yet! You probably aren’t ready either….oh well. Summer was good while it lasted, yeah? Love this post on fairy tales. I do kind of agree with you on it being a little weird to teach them to the kids. We also read and discuss different versions of those stories and compare them to original versions. (Books like “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” or “The Lamb Who Came to Dinner”.) Even then, as hysterical as “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” is, there are parts of that to make you wonder if it’s really a book for kids. Yet, our kids love those stories. Our school once had the San Jose Opera come and do an assembly for our school, and they actually did the operatic version of Hansel and Gretel, complete with pushing the witch into the stove. The kids loved it, even my kindergartners. And nobody had nightmares! I dunno. Maybe we overthink it. Although I will say I am glad that we don’t teach the original Cinderella story…..that one is really intense, with parts of feet getting cut off and eyes getting pecked out. Disney totally cleaned that one up, let me tell you!