These were some wonderful fairy tales we have shared in First Grade:

For the Alphabet, (since everyone asks this!), this is what we have done/will finish by the end of the school year:

A- Angel (fit in with my container story, not a Grimm’s tale)

B- the BEAR from Snow-White and Rose-Red (Grimm’s)

C- the CAT from The Master Cat (otherwise known as Puss in Boots)

D- the DOOR of the DWELLING of the DWARVES from Little Snow White (Grimm’s)

E- the eeee sound from KEY in The Golden Key (Grimm’s) not my favorite, you may be able to do better!

F- the FISH from The Fisherman and His Wife (Grimm’s)

G- the GOOSE from The Golden Goose (Grimm’s)

H- the HOUSE from Hansel and Gretel (Grimm’s)

I- the “I” that the Prince was from “The King’s Son Who Feared Nothing” (Grimm’s)

J- For JACK from “Jack and the Beanstalk”

K- the KING from “The Princess of the Flaming Castle”

L- Long Legs Longshanks from “Longshanks, Girth and Keen”  (Slovakian tale and I had to include it because it is my favorite tale!)

M- the MOUNTAIN from Semeli Mountain (Grimm’s)

N- the NAIL from “The Nail” (Grimm’s)

O- the hole in a shape of an O from “The Gnome” (Grimm’s)

P- the PINK from “The Pink” (Grimm’s)

Q- the QUEEN from my container story

R- RUMPELSTILTSKIN from “Rumpelstiltskin” (Grimm’s)

S- the SNAKE from “The White Snake” (Grimm’s)

T- the TROLL from “The THree Billy Goats Gruff”

U- the UMBRELLA my Fairy Queen has in my container story

V- a VALLEY, also from my container story

W- WATER from  “Iron Hans” (Grimm’s)

X,Y.Z – the Three Wise Men from my container story – see Donna Simmons’ work for this inspiration, the reasoning behind it and the drawings! 

We will cover some more fairy tales during a writing block toward the end of the school year.

For the Qualities of Numbers-

1 – pick a sun from any tale (we did “Brother and Sister” – Grimm’s

2- “The Two Brothers” (Grimm’s) (this is my other favorite fairy tale)

3- “The Three Sons of Fortune” (Grimm’s)

4-  “The Lion” from the book “Active Arithmetic!”

5- “The Star Money” (Grimm’s)

6- “How Six Men Got On In the World” (Grimm’s)

7- “The Seven Ravens” (Grimm’s)

8- “Eight” by Dorothy Harrer

9-  “The Gnome” (Grimm’s)

10-  we did not do a story

11- we did not do a story

12- “The Twelve Hunstmen” (Grimm’s)

We have also done all the Fairytale Stories from Dorothy Harrer, including The Prince Who Couldn’t Read, The Secret and Magic Name of the King (also great for the letter “I”!), The Princess of the Golden Stairs, The Soldier, the Huntsmen and the Servant, Three Sisters, The Fir Tree.

Nature Stories:

All of the ones by Dorothy Harrer including The Lazy Gnome, The Lazy Water Fairy, The Four Seasons, The Rainbow, The Prince of Butterflies, The Snowflake, The Stag, The Lion, and the Eagle, The Four Brothers.

I have also found a Slovak tale regarding “The Twelve Months.” Excellent!!  I have also taken our local animals, found them in Anna Comstack’s “Handbook of Nature Study” and taken some of the characteristics I wanted to highlight and put them into a little nature story.

Other Favorite Fairy Tales:

The Fairy Tales collections by Virginia Haviland are really wonderful and you can get them so cheaply used.  Other favorite fairy tales include “The Castle Under the Sea” (www.mainlesson.com); The Three Princesses of Whiteland (J. Moe) and Soria Moria Castle (PC Asbjornsen); many of the Grimm’s fairy tales not covered in the alphabet stories; many Irish fairy tales; tales from Czechoslovakia such as Budilinek and Zlatovlaska the Golden-Haired; some of the Russian tales such as The Little Humpbacked Horse and Wassilissa the Beautiful.

Fairy tales are great fun, and I hope this list helps you as you put together a wonderful experience at home for your First Grader.

Just a few thoughts from my little corner of the world.