Themed Lesson: Fairy Tales

BRAINSTORM about fairy tale characters

1. Come up with a list of fairy tale characters. You might think of specific characters, like Cinderella, or a general character type, such as a witch or a fairy.

2. Today we will think about five different fairy tale characters and hear music created for each of them. The five characters we will focus on are Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy, trolls, a witch, and a prince.

3. Draw or print a grid like this one. Think a little about each character. Write or say out loud some words that describe each character. Then draw a picture.

LISTEN to musical depictions of fairy tale characters

1. Now let's listen to a musical depiction of each of these characters. Sleeping Beauty is first. Her theme begins about 40 seconds into this video. As you listen, read your descriptive words. Do those words also describe the music?

2. Here is music for the Sugar Plum Fairy, as composed by Peter Tchaikovsky, from his musical Christmas fairy tale, The Nutcracker.

3. Our next characters are trolls. Here you hear a musical Dance of the Little Trolls from Johan Halvorsen's Scenes from Norwegian Fairy Tales.

4. So many fairy tales have witches. Here's some music called The Witch's Ride from Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel.

5. Sergei Prokofiev wrote a musical version of the famous Cinderella story. This part is called Mazurka and Entrance of the Prince.

6. Finally, in Peter Tchaikovsky's musical re-telling of Sleeping Beauty, he wrote a section called Procession of the Fairy-Tale Characters. As you listen, imagine a parade full of every fairy tale character you can imagine. Notice when the character of the music changes. Maybe that's a new fairy tale character marching by.

EXTEND learning about fairy tales

1. If you would like a refresher about the story of Sleeping Beauty, here is a version to read or have someone read to you.

2. Want more fairy tales? Try listening to this episode of Classical Kids Storytime – Beauty and the Beast.

3. For a lesson on another musical depiction of a fairy tale, see Class Notes’ lesson about The Swineherd Suite here. Or, try this lesson to create your own fairy tale!

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