Art Classics Stories - Teaching Art With Classic Fairy Tales (& Fairy Tales with Classic Art!)

A few of you may know that one of the things I do is teach Art on a voluntary basis at my son's elementary school. The weeks where I get a little erratic with my posting times and frequency, are usually my 'art weeks' as I call them. They are the weeks where I do my last minute run around town and country to gather materials, prep everything (times as many kids as I will have), create my video resources (in which I usually try to sneak in some stories and pop culture they will relate the art and lesson to later), do my real time lesson trials until I smooth out the bumps and other random things, make sure I've covered all the nationwide art teaching standards and have worked in at least one or two connections to their other regular school subjects and lessons, along with a bit of science, a dash of history (not just art history) and every day practicality... and then, despite being process focused and not display oriented, I still have to put together a presentation that presents everything we did in the best light possible...

It's intense, crazy, draining, and worth every second when I see a kid begin to believe they really are creative, or discover how art is applicable - and helpful! - in every day life. (This past week-plus has been one of those!)

You may have guessed I'm not one of those who is good at taking a basic paint-by-numbers sort of lesson plan and being happy with that. I'm not. I'm a big believer in immersive learning and multidisciplinary approaches to hands-on experience and teaching, in being about process not product, and most lesson plans I come across simply don't take those into account. I'm always on the look out for different resources that are useful for tying art into other subjects, to connecting art to everyday school, and for combining it with stories and showing how it's useful in daily life.

The books I'm posting on today are one of these gems. These are classic stories, mostly fairy tales, that have been retold and 'illustrated' in the style of art masters, to teach, not only the story, but about the style of art.

I nearly fainted with delight the first time I saw these!

Here's the description of the series:

Art Classic Stories (with CD (with CD)

These are unique books that combine classical art with the most loved children's stories. Each book features a famous artist, with story illustrations in the artist's style. The exquisite pictures capture the children's eyes and guide them to the world of art. They offer a different aspect of art and using a delightful story format that makes it enjoyable as well as educational. These books can be used in reading tutorials, discussion class, art immersion courses or even for drama. 

• A delicate rhyming style to capture the essence of the story 

• The delightful tales of classical stories 

• The exquisite pictures to showcase the specific technique used by each artist 

• Discussion of the story and the art, which can take comprehension to a higher level 

• Moral lesson sections 

• CDs with Narrative voices (adult and children) and come with sound effect, excellent for play and dramatic lessons 

• Suitable for children from Elementary, Year 1 to 3 

And I'm going to say these are suitable for use well beyond third grade - for creative teachers at least. 

Here's the lovely list, sized so you can see how the art style is adapted for the story and which artist is matched with which fairy tale:

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

           

 

(My only complaint is they seem just about impossible to track down separately - and afford, yikes! - but I shall persist, if it takes me many iron shoes and climbing ranges of glass mountains!)

I did manage to find the Munch Musicians of Bremen book, for just a few dollars (minus the CD unfortunately), and am dually impressed. From what I've been able to see online and by the example I have, these have been wonderfully produced.

If you see these, snap them up! They're definitely in the treasure-resources category.

 

Note: If any of you come across any of these books and feel like donating to a good cause, I'll happily take the donation, put them to very good use and you'd be assured of enriching the lives of many kids.(Just email me at fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com.)

School Transformed into Snow Queen Scenes - Kids' Grades Soar in Response

From The Snow Queen illustrated by Vadislav Erko - note all the tools of learning in this illustration

Wow. I wish kids here had the opportunity to learn like this! There's not a whole lot of information about this event, other than a very short piece in a local paper but it's a fantastic example of immersive learning and teaching through the arts and fairy tales to foster excellence in students.

The whole idea of using the setting to immerse student senses and live storytelling is to engender learning of often-challenging subjects for kids. And it works. It really, really works!

Here's the short report:

SCENES from Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen turned St Mary's Church of England Primary in Stansted into a fairy-tale world. 

Pupils felt like they were stepping into a storybook after staff gave the primary a revamp during a (pupil free) day. 

It set the backdrop as children started a two-week project basing all their literacy and artwork on different versions of the much-loved story. 

They were treated to a performance of the play by Quantum Theater, paid for by the school's PTFA. 

"Seeing the school transformed was a wonderful surprise and caused great excitement," said Kate Maginn, English co-ordinator. "All the children produced quality pieces of writing and art, whatever their age."

(Source HERE)

Congratulations to the caring and motivated parents and teachers who worked so hard on their pupil free day, made this happen and brought Quantum Theater into the school to bring the story to life to boot!

Not coincidentally, this type of education is exactly what Quantum Theater is all about. They're specifically set up to amp education via stories, fairy tales and theater. The idea is to help kids learn the basics, like reading, writing and maths, to enjoy the process and to get excited about learning even more. It's such a brilliant program. If I were wealthy I'd make a point of expanding their company so they can reach more kids.Here's more from the "About Us" section of Quantum Theater's website (we need these guys over here please!):

Quantum Theatre for Science was founded in 1988 as a direct response to the lack of educational drama available to schools on the subject of numeracy and science. Over twenty years on, nearly three thousand schools each year see Quantum performances, using them to introduce or re-enforce these topics, making Quantum Britain's foremost science and numeracy-based theatre-in-education company.

Our customers have come to rely on Quantum's characteristic style; educational elements combined with pacey, humorous musical theatre. Our aim is to make the world of science and numeracy accessible and relevant to children's everyday experiences by bringing it "to life."                     If you're wondering "Why Snow Queen?", there's a lot to work with in the story, with everything from each season getting a showcase through to the idea of puzzles, math and logic (not to mention writing on a fish!). I don't know how the play was written for the show to be specifically focused on reading and writing and more but whatever they're doing, it clearly worked. Works. They're still touring around other (lucky) schools. Could Quantum Theater (and the happy teachers and parents at St. Mary's Primary) please come have a chat with my son's school, so the kids here can also learn this way? I'm lucky if I get to do a proper storytelling for our kiddos, let alone transform the school for a unit! Note: photos are from St. Mary's Primary and from the Snow Queen production by Quantum Theater (found on their Twitter account). *We did a little of this in the Children's Theater I worked with but not to the extent of working with the education system directly. We would try to incorporate learning principles ourselves but it's so much more effective if teachers, parents and guests are working together!

Märchenhaft: Learning German With Grimm (A Household Tales 200th Anniversary Challenge)

 I love this idea for many reasons and, more importantly, I think the Grimm Brothers would more than have approved. It's a wonderful idea for the 200th anniversary of Grimm's Household Tales.

From Germany.info:

From Rapunzel to Hänsel und Gretel to Aschenputtel(Cinderella), the fairy tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and first published in December 1812 in their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales)  are known and loved throughout the world. 

During 2012-13, the 200th anniversary of this renowned compendium of stories is being celebrated with a large variety of cultural events, including open-air festivals, exhibitions, and theater performances, all along the German Fairy Tale Road (Deutsche Märchenstraße)--from Hanau, the brothers’ birthplace, in the south, to Bremen, home of the Bremer Stadtmusikanten (Bremen Town Musicians), in the north. 

The tales have remained popular through the centuries due to their universal themes and memorable characters, as well as their ability to instill values in the young. But the Grimm fairy tales—the 86 included in the 1812 volume, plus the dozens more added in subsequent publications—are also ideally suited as texts for learning the challenging, yet endlessly intriguing, German language. 

With the Grimm anniversary year in mind, the US representative of the German Agency for Schools Abroad, Gert Wilhelm, supported by funding from the German government through the “Netzwerk Deutsch USA” (Network for German language promotion in the US), organized a nationwide theater competition, utilizing the popular YouTube platform.
Starting in March 2011, German instructors at schools and universities across the US were encouraged to submit proposals for theater productions of German fairy tales, performed by young German-learners, in German. Twenty of the proposals were selected, and instructors were asked to submit simple, unedited DVDs of their students' performances by the end of the year. 

...With logistical support from the Goethe-Institut in Chicago, a special “Märchenhaft” (literally: “fairy tale-like”) channel was created on YouTube, allowing the students and teachers—and the wider world—to compare productions of Schneewittchen (Snow White), Die Sterntaler (The Star Money), Die goldene Gans (The Golden Goose), and many others. 

Once all videos had been submitted, a jury of five German education experts met to select the best productions. The winners were selected for the high standards, both theatrical and linguistic, of their submissions.  

...The creativity and hard work that went into this production, and all of the “Märchenhaft” productions, would surely have pleased the Brothers Grimm. But not only that: as founding fathers of German philology and authors of Das Deutsche Wörterbuch (The German Dictionary)—the German equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary—one imagines they would also have been delighted to see the enthusiasm exhibited for the German language so far away from home.

You can read the whole article with details about the Märchenhaft fairy tale challenge along with the winning schools and productions HERE.

The Märchenhaft (as mentioned above, literally: "fairy tale-like") YouTube Channel with the competition submissions can be found HERE.