Sensational Seconds: Fractured Fairy Tales

One of my favorite things to teach in second grade truly has been fractured fairy tales. My students love comparing/contrasting the traditional fairy tale to the fractured fairy tale. We've had a lot of fun reading and analyzing these text to identify some of the similarities and differences as it relates to the characters, setting, problem and solution.

In writing, I wanted my students to write a fairy tale, but instead of just writing a plain 'ol "boring" fairy tale, we decided to change things up in a fun way!

Thus came about my new writing mini-unit on fractured fairy tale writing!

My students have LOVED this so far, and we are continuing to work through it! Basically, my students get to draw (out of a hat) a strip of paper that has a traditional fairy tale character (Cinderella, etc.) and a setting; however, the setting is not a traditional setting. You might see Sleeping Beauty at the pool or Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs in Hollywood. We had a blast laughing at all the different possibilities.

The students are given the characters and setting; however, they must create their own problem and solution. They also knew to include at least 3 elements of fairy tales that we have been learning (magic, good vs. evil characters, special words, etc.)

Needless to say, this has been a hit, and my students' stories are already taking off. I know they'll need some fine-tuning as we take them through the writing process, but anything to get my students motivated about writing works for me!

Come check out this unit on mine (and my great friend Little Miss Whimsical's) TN store! In it includes the character and setting choices for students, a brainstorming graphic organizer, published writing paper, and a rubric for grading. I want to add in some sort of cute craftivity with the students creating/drawing/coloring their character to hold up their story, but I'm not sure how to do that! I'll play around with it and see!