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My educational method is to present one fairy tale for at least two weeks.  I read multiple versions of the tale, retell it orally, retell it with puppets, and at the end – have the children act it out.  It is a method that I have developed over the last 12 years or more.  This year, my intern Stephanie Harsha, took the Three Little Pigs play to a new level with the houses she had the children make!  Oh my but they were divine!   The children loved it so much!
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I think it is important to make the acting out of a fairy tale a simple activity.  We will act out at least eight to ten fairy tales.  It is not a big production.  It is an opportunity for children to own the story.  I call it “teaching to the bones.”  The children know the stories to the marrow.  Here is a simple way to identify the pigs – with sentence strips.  It is easy and it works.
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Stephanie let the children decorate and embellish the three houses.  They worked so hard.
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Stephanie had the children bring sticks from their own yards.  It was so cool.  I am definitely taking Stephanie's method of making the three houses.  It worked beautifully.  (Shhh – my method was not this beautiful!)