Fairytales and the Classroom

It’s one thing to know that resilience is important, but quite another to know how to nurture it in the busy early childhood classroom! Juggling standards, curriculum, routines, and children who just need a hug is a challenge. Fairytales to the rescue!

Here is a framework for thinking about the ordinary magic of resilience throughout the curriculum. Below it, you’ll find some resources to guide you on your way!

The human brain thinks in stories, and from the earliest age, children are drawn to stories like luna moths to a flame.

They tell stories, both in words and in their play, to make sense of the world,

They listen raptly as we tell or read stories to them, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a beloved children’s book, or a description of a goldfish we once saw, or what we noticed on the bus ride home from work: they love our stories!

Not surprisingly, a classroom or home rich in stories is the best way to invite children into the wondrous world of reading, writing, speaking and listening as they develop their emergent skills through storytelling.

Fairy tales, with their simple plots, stock characters and consistent structure, inspire and inform children’s own story-making.  Even the realistic stories children tell, dictate, or write draw on these fairytale foundations, if they have heard them.

With their many variants from around the world, fairytales are also a way to infuse culture, diversity and equity into story time. The framework and resources below introduce how fairy tales and storytelling, and especially, the storytelling-storyacting process pioneered by Vivian Gussin Paley, can become a enchanted fountain of literacy and resilience for young children.

The primary protective factor for resilience is relationships, with caregivers, peers, and other significant adults. Relationships are also the heartbeat of the classroom. By focusing on these relationships as you plan learning experiences for children, you can maximize the magic of resilience throughout the day.

When children are using their initiative in various ways, they are acting on their own wonderful ideas, and gaining agency: that feeling that they are capable humans. Experiences that promote initiative are called “Doing Magic” (because children DO things), and it’s sometimes helpful to break it into two categories: Playing Magic, and Making Magic.

Play offers children opportunities to make choices, try out ideas, and follow the breadcrumbs of their imaginations (as well as fostering relationships).

When early childhood learning centers/stations and outside time are intentionally set up to provide child-directed explorations, the resilience protective factors of  initiative and executive functions sparkle!

Many learning experiences that promote initiative and executive functions involve a bit more adult guidance as children learn basic processes that help them to get the most out of open-ended materials as they create and solve problems. These are Making Magic.

We want children to experiment with their own ideas…but helping them learn how to wipe off paintbrushes, hammer nails, and follow the sequence of attaching objects to a collage with tape or glue will free their creativity in later projects.

For young children, self-regulation is the most mysterious, and important of superpowers! Of all of the protective factors, self-regulation and its cousin effortful control are the most directly connected with the child’s brain development, and the most impacted by both temperament and trauma.

Many early childhood activities that children find challenging, such as transitions, sitting quietly, waiting their turn, etc. can be supported by tapping into story and imagery that is meaningful to a child. And “olden day” games like Simon Says, Red Light Green Light, and Hide and Seek offer playful ways for children to flex their emerging superpower of self-regulation!