scheme of work for ks1 statutory requirement

Scheme of work for KS1 statutory requirement:

“becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and

considering their particular characteristics”

The general direction of these ideas is to highlight the features of traditional fairy tales in terms of

themes, plot, characters and language, both to raise cultural awareness and to lead the children

towards creating their own tale.

Pairwork and groupwork are both used throughout, but the ideas are presented as if each child is

working on their own story. It is, however, easily possible to adapt the instructions so that pairs or

groups can work together on a collaborative story.

Identifying Fairy Tales

[Aim: to find the baseline by identifying what the children already know]

1. Ask the whole class Which fairy tales do you know?

2. Scribe each title on a separate piece of A3 paper. These papers will go on the wall and be

added to during the fairy tale project with pictures and appropriate words from the

individual tales. Examples might include:

The Gingerbread Man: oven, run, fox

Cinderella: ball, dress, pumpkin

Jack and the Beanstalk: cow, hen, castle

Snow White: apple, mirror, sleep

Anansi the Spider: web, legs, trick

Groups/tables: encourage each group to talk about fairy tales they know, sharing their

versions of the story. These can be prompted by pictures or items from a story bag (eg, a

witch’s hat, a spindle, an apple) which can be moved from table to table.

3. Ask each group to report back. Share the tales, allowing children to tell them.

4. Ask the children to talk about fairy tales with their carers or parents to find out more. They

can bring in any books from home or from the school library.

History cross-curricula extension: Fairy tales often evoke historical particularly medieval settings. This is an opportunity to learn about castles, weaponry and lifestyles in this period. Activities could include designing and making shields or flags; creating the menu for a court feast.

Fairy-tale Characters

[Aim: to identify characters in fairy tales]

1. Ask the children which characters usually appear in fairy tales. You can refer back to the A3

sheets to see if the same sort of character appears more than once. Examples might include:

Witch, princess, prince, troll, fairy, talking animal

2. Encourage children to identify that, usually, fairy tales have:

A good character: discuss what kind of character this could be eg, poor boy, princess

A bad character: eg, a witch, wizard, wicked queen or uncle, naughty stepsisters

Friend characters: often friends of the good character

A helpful character: this could be a magical person or an item, eg, the fairy

godmother, a magic carpet, a man selling beans.

3. Encourage the children to think of examples from fairy tales they discussed in Identifying

Fairy Tales.

4. Add any new good, bad, helper and side characters to the A3 sheets, as words or drawings

as appropriate.

5. Play the ‘who am I’ fairy tale game: Ask a child think of a fairy tale character and to come up to the front. Everyone can ask a yes or no question to discover which character the child is thinking of, eg, Are you a human? Are you a boy? Do you live in a palace? Are you magical?

Music and drama cross-curricula extension: Get children to create some background music to accompany various fairy-tale characters. Examples might include drums for soldiers; something dark and sinister for witches and wizards; something heavy and slow for trolls and giants; and something light and bright for fairies. You can play these musical themes as prompts to get the children to act out the characters around the class.

Designing Characters

[Aim: to make our own characters in fairy tales]

1. Give each child an A4 grid such as the worksheet provided below (page 5).

2. Remind the children of the kinds of characters from Fairy-tale Characters (good, bad, friend,

helpful)

3. Each child should draw characters from their imagination in the squares of the grid, aiming

to have:

1 good character

1 bad character

2 helpful characters or items

2 friend characters

4. Alternatively, children can choose who they think fits those descriptions from the second

worksheet below (page 6).

PSHE cross-curricula extension: There are many modern retellings of fairy tales which subvert gender stereotypes or reimagine the motivations of characters usually deemed to be naturally bad or wholly good. Traditional tales could form an introduction to the questions of gender, class and power: What would it be like to be a woman living in a time like this? Should the Little Mermaid change her body for love? Was Jack justified in stealing from the giant? Is the Sea Witch (from the Little Mermaid) bad, or just a shrewd business woman?

good

bad helpful

helpful

friend friend

Fairy-tale Openings

[Aim: to understand the plot of a fairy tale, focusing on the opening]

1. Encourage the children to think about how a fairy tale begins.

What is the opening line? (‘Once upon a time’)

2. Most often a fairy tale starts from the point of view of the main character. He or she has a

problem. What kinds of problems do we see in fairy tales?

3. Talk about common fairy-tale problems. Remind children that fairy tales are very old and

reflect what would have been common problems of the times such as being poor or

unmarried. The main character might be:

Sad (Cinderella, Beast, Prince from Princess and the Pea)

Lonely (Rapunzel, Beast)

In trouble (Snow White, Gingerbread Man)

Setting off on adventure (Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks)

Stuck (Rapunzel)

Poor (Jack and his mum)

… or a number of these things at once.

4. Ask the children to look at the worksheet below in pairs (page 8). Read the text to the

children.

What is Aladdin’s problem? (Children may identify that he is poor, they may also see

the baddie listening in)

What is Coral’s problem? (Children may identify that she is sad, and may give a

range of appropriate reasons for this)

5. Encourage the children to talk in their groups and develop their ideas about what it might

feel like to be in this situation and what the characters could do. Children can share their

ideas with the class.

6. Now ask the children to think about their good character from their grid in Designing

Characters. What is their problem? How do they feel? Think about the friend character.

What does the good character say to their friend? What do they decide to do about it? Will

their friend help?

7. Children can work in pairs to role play their good character telling the friend about the

problem. Maybe their friend has some advice.

Maths cross-curricula extension: Using Aladdin’s problem to talk about which things are more expensive than others; comparing costs and adding up prices.

Plotting Fairy Tales – the climax

[Aim: to understand the plot of a fairy tale, focusing on the middle climax]

1. In a fairy tale, the main character does not fix their problem straight away. In the middle

part of a fairy tale things go wrong and our main character’s problem gets worse. For

example:

Jack climbs the beanstalk but …. meets a bad giant.

Snow White escapes the palace but …. gets lost in the forest.

The Three Pigs build their houses but …. along comes the Big Bad Wolf.

2. Ask the children to look at the worksheet below in groups (page 10). Read the text to the

children.

What has gone wrong for the characters in each picture? (A wicked fairy has arrived

and is going to make a spell; the baby prince is in danger)

3. Remind the children that we know their character (from their character grid) has a problem.

He or she might be sad or lonely or stuck or in trouble. This is where the story gets exciting!

Tell the children we are going to make everything go wrong for that character.

4. Encourage the children to look at their character grid and find the bad character.

What will happen when the bad character comes along? What will he or she do?

5. Children can draw or write the scene.

Science cross-curricula extension: Use the story of the Three Little Pigs to compare the relative strengths of materials and how easy it would be to blow them down using a desk fan. What factors give a construction or material strength?

Fairy Tale Resolutions

[Aim: to understand the plot of a fairy tale, focusing on the middle resolution]

1. Now it’s all gone wrong, we need to find a way to save our character. This is where fairy

tales often use a helpful character or item, for example:

The Seven Dwarves – provide a home for Snow White.

The Fairy Godmother – makes Cinderella an outfit for the ball.

The Genie in the lamp – grants Aladdin three wishes.

The Third Little Pig – helps his brothers in defeating the Big Bad Wolf.

2. Ask the children to look at the worksheet below in groups (page 12).

Do you know which fairy tale these pictures are from? (They are from The Little

Mermaid and Aladdin but for the purposes of the lesson it is not essential to be

correct).

How does Kittie Lacey save each character? (She cuts a hole in the net to free herself

and the Little Mermaid, and then traps the Sea Witch; she makes a rope out of palm

leaves to free Aladdin from the cave)

3. Put some children in pairs and some in threes to act out each scene on the worksheet and

imagine what the characters in either picture would say to each other. They can then role

play their scene for the class. (Children can alternatively do this as a puppet show which can

be linked with a craft activity).

4. Children can use the blank space on the worksheet to add text at the appropriate level.

5. Encourage the children to look at their own character grid and find a helpful character or

thing.

How can the helper fix things? Can the friend characters help too?

6. Children can work in pairs to answer these questions for each other and cooperate to

develop their separate stories.

Geography cross-curricula extension: Fairy tales often include journeys and travel, characters going on a quest or being sent away. Groups of children can create maps of these lands, eg, Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White.

Plotting a Fairy Tale – The Ending

[Aim: to understand the plot of a fairy tale, focusing on the ending]

1. How do fairy tales end? Encourage the children to think of the line ‘and they all lived happily

ever after’.

2. Use the worksheet below (page 14) to talk about how a happy ending might be realised.

Marriage is a common resolution to a traditional fairy tale, but a story may also end with

(public) celebrations at traditional festivals (like Christmas) or celebrations of the seasons.

3. Ask children to identify the fairy-tale characters having fun in each of the pictures on the

worksheet.

4. Ask the children to look back at their stories.

What did your main character want at the start? Was he or she lonely, sad, poor,

stuck or lost?

Here is where the children get to make their character’s dreams come true! Encourage the

children to make their character find a friend/treasure, save someone, escape.

Art and DT cross-curricula extension: Children can make story boxes (diorama) of the ending of their fairy tales using the scenes in the

worksheet as a guide.

I love hearing from children and teachers! Please contact me with any feedback or comments on: [email protected] For further resources, and for school visits see: www.abielongstaff.com

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scheme of work for ks1 statutory requirement

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