UNICEF is "Giving Tales" To Help Children Around the World (With Some Help From Celebrity Friends)

Hans Christian Andersen's stories are getting retold to help children, with a little help from UNICEF and their celebrity friends. The project is called GivingTales.

Have a look at the neat behind-the-scenes promo video:

From LookToTheStars (emphasis in bold and underlined, is mine):

Developed in association with Sir Roger Moore, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, GivingTales features the voice talents of world-renowned actors including Ewan McGregor, Unicef UK Ambassador, Stephen Fry, and Dame Joan Collins. Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless fairy tales have now been modernised, condensed and paired with vivid illustrations that capture the universal and timeless life lessons synonymous with Andersen’s stories.

“I’ve been a long time admirer of Hans Christian Andersen’s work, and I think it’s a wonderful collection of fairy stories for children and adults alike,” said Sir Roger Moore.

..Three additional stories are available in the first series: The Emperor’s New Clothes (Dame Joan Collins, DBE), The Little Match Girl (Ewan McGregor, OBE) and The Ugly Duckling (Stephen Fry). 

Today’s children are increasingly accustomed to consuming content in one short sitting. While paper books may be giving way to digital versions, classic fairy tales never grow old. There’s a big need to adapt traditional stories into shorter, animated versions, so they can captivate and inspire another generation of young readers.

“Taking care not to lose the essence of what makes Hans Christian Andersen’s stories so great, GivingTales has condensed the stories down so they can be enjoyed in minutes, not hours. Using the voices of renowned actors gives them new life in a memorable and entertaining way,” Jacob Moller, CEO of GivingTales. 

“We’re overwhelmed by the initial support we’ve received, both from the celebrities affiliated with our project, as well as our ongoing relationship with the Unicef UK. Together, we hope to make a difference in the lives of many of children around the world,” said Klaus Lovgreen, Chairman, GivingTales.

These newly retold and illustrated/animated stories have been developed by an award winning team that creates digital entertainment content, by making apps for Apple's App Store and GooglePlay. The first stories are becoming available this weekend (the first with Roger Moore as the narrator, retelling The Princess & the Pea, is free), with more stories and content to come in future weeks and months.

As part of the company’s mission to educate and support children, GivingTales kft is committing 30% of its revenue to Unicef UK to help children around the world.

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.)

Disney Junior Begins "Goldie & Bear" (Maria Tatar Consulting!)

I will admit I sort of yawned my way through this announcement, initially - Disney Junior is starting production on another fairy tale mash-up animated series, etc, etc.. - until I saw a very familiar name in the text: Maria Tatar.

Hold the phone!

I had to back it up and take another look and, given the lateness of the hour I'm writing, I thought I'd fallen asleep and was wish-dreaming but no, it's all there in black and white.

I've put the most exciting news in bold below.

Here's an extract from the announcement by Broadway World:

Production has begun on Disney Junior's "Goldie & Bear," a fairytale-inspired animated series for preschoolers. Slated to debut in Fall 2015, the series follows the adventures of newfound friends Goldie and Bear, following the renowned porridge incident of "Goldilocks and The Three Bears."  

... (EVP) Kanter said, "Disney Junior embraces strong storytelling and memorable characters, and nothing reflects that more than classic fairytales. We are excited to continue the story of 'Goldilocks and The Three Bears' from a new perspective and hope to inspire kids to create their own 'happily-ever-afters' by giving them new stories featuring classic characters they already know and love." 

Set in the Fairytale Forest, the series follows the adventures of plucky Goldie and her best friend, Bear, as they encounter well-known characters from fairytales and nursery rhymes, including Little Red Riding Hood, Humpty Dumpty and The Three Little Pigs. 

Maria Tatar, John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and Disney Junior Advisory Board Member, serves as the series consultant, advising on storytelling, fairytales and folklore. The importance of storytelling is central to the show's curriculum, with episodes referencing original fairytales and nursery rhymes while providing new insights into their narratives and underlying messages. Throughout the series, Goldie and Bear model friendship and community, demonstrate creative problem-solving and exhibit critical thinking skills such as logic and strategy.

I'm just... floored by this fantastic news! And it appears to be on the "fast-track" too, set to premiere in Fall 2015. (I wish it were a little more unique looking, but other than that, all the news on this is great!)

The writer/creator isn't a newbie with regard to fairy tales either. Jorge Aguirre has had his own brand of fractured fairy tales in the form of the popular kids comic book, Giants Beware, (see above) out there for a while now.

(And coming soon, Dragons Beware).

You can read more on the talent and crew, along with a few hints as to the characters we'll be seeing, in the whole announcement HERE.

Between this and other developments in various companies in various places, it does seem that there might be some sort of "old tale revival" happening - at least for children. I could NOT be happier about this!

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!