Day(s) Lesson Activity: Weeks 1-3

1
To begin, ask students to analyze a popular fairy tale. Students will need to identify the elements of
the story like characters, setting, problem, solution, lesson, main events. After the student share
ideas, ask;
How would this story be different if it were told in another country?
Would certain elements stay the same?
What is the most important element in this story?
Answers to these questions can be displayed and charted using preferred methods in the classroom
(Smartboard technology, overhead, ELMO, etc.)
(Through the discussion, students should have identified that individuals in another culture or
country may not know certain words, places or expressions that are mentioned in the story. Students
will also identify that the most important element in the story is the characters and the message or
lesson the story tells.)

Inform students that over the next several weeks will be interacting with another classroom of
students who are located in another country. In order to interact with students in another country,
each student will need to have their parents/guardians give consent through the use of the ePals
Parental Consent Form.
Refer back to the fairy tale of the previous day. As a class work through the Fairy Tale Outline in
order to fill in all parts. After the outline is complete, ask students to brainstorm with a partner or
small group of the different elements that they can change within the story without changing the
essential message. Please use the Changeable Detail activity sheet.
After students are given sometime to collaborate with one another, have students present their
findings and details that they believe can be changed within the story. As students present their ideas
please display their thoughts in a way that can be used to refer to later.

4-5

Individually, have students write down their three favorite fairy tales. After students have identified
their top three fairy tales, take a survey by asking each student to identify the stories they wrote
down. As students give the fairy tale title, place tally marks next to repeated titles. After each
student has been poled, identify the three fairy tales that are the most popular in the classroom.
These will be the three stories that the class will share with their paired classroom in another country
over the next three weeks (one week per fairy tale)
Once the first fairy tale has been selected, the class will now need to determine how they want to
share the story with the students in another country. (These is where the teacher/facilitator can be as
creative, inventive or as simple as they want. Using the tools that are already in the school, teachers
and students should be able to determine a way to present the story to another class digitally.)
Examples: Teachers could record themselves reading the story aloud, students can read the story out
loud while the teacher records, a digital book could be made using PowerPoint or other media option
It is the intention that by or on the fifth day that teachers/facilitators will sent their popular fairy tale
to their paired classroom.

6-7

As a class, students will watch or view the presentation of a fairy tale from another country.
Students will watch or view the presentation at least twice, once for pure enjoyment and the other
with the purpose of identifying the story elements.
After the fairy tale is viewed a couple times, students will collaboratively work together, with
guidance from teacher/facilitator, to fill out the Fairy Tale Outline. Students will need to identify all
that they can with a partner or small group, before joining back together as a whole class to compile

what they were able to identify on the fairy tale outline.

A class Fairy Tale Outline will be created and displayed for all students to see and refer back to.
8

9-10

Once the class has compiled all the elements of the fairy tale that they viewed, the teacher/facilitator
will then send the completed Fairy Tale Outline to the original classroom. Once it is sent back, the
students in that classroom will assess to identify how well the outline was completed.
(Were the good and evil characters identified correctly? Was the message or lesson of the story
correctly identified? Etc.) Any corrections should be told to the classroom so that clarification and
understanding can occur.
The classroom will choose the second popular fairy tale to share with their paired class. Again the
class will need to determine how they want to share the story with the students in another country.
Examples: Teachers could record themselves reading the story aloud, students can read the story out
loud while the teacher records, a digital book could be made using PowerPoint or other media option
It is the intention that by or on the tenth day that teachers/facilitators will sent their second popular
fairy tale to their paired classroom.

11-15

The following familiar process will occur over the next several days.

Students will view paired classrooms fairy tale twice

Fairy Tale Outline will be filled out fist as collaborative pairs or small groups of students,
then by the whole class to be displayed and referred back to
Final Fairy Tale Outline will be sent back to the original classroom for corrections or
comments.
Students will then create a presentation of their final popular fairy tale choice of their
country or culture.
Presentation are expected to be completed and sent by the end of the 14th day.
On the last day, day 15, students will again fill out the Fairy Tale Outline for the third and
final story that they received from their paired classroom.
The classroom discussion of the third fairy tale should be sent back to the paired classroom
either by the 15th day or the 16th day.