Let me tell you a story - book

Fairy tales from past to now Traditional Little Red Riding Hood and Modern Versions 2nd grade teacher Mateja Pernar and religion teacher Dolores Brkljačić We have chosen three fairy tales:  1. Little Red Riding Hood (brothers Grimm) 2. Who´s Bad and Who´s Good, Little Red Riding Hood? (Smallman, Price)   3. Little Green Riding Hood (Silvija Šesto).  The students and the teacher read one fairy tale each day of the project week and talked about the characters. Students explained the differences between these fairy tales and talked about their expectations. They also talked about the main problem in the story and how this problem affected the end of the fairy tale. On the fourth day, students in groups explored the themes and meanings of a fairy tale. After reading the fairy tale, the students made a personal identification card of the main character. Then they had to recognize the relatives, positive and negative characters and find the cause of the problem. With the help of information gathered while solving these tasks, students created a class poster for a particular fairy tale. On the fifth day the students stayed in the same groups. Each group had a different task.  The first group had to perform an improvised dramatization of its fairy tale with the use of dolls. The second group had to retell the other students their fairy tale with the help of a story timeline. Students drew specific concepts or ideas on the timeline and those ideas were an association to the fairy tale event. The third group interpreted its fairy tale with the use of a story dice. The student threw the dice and had to complete the task. There were several tasks on the dice:  1. Retell the story from the point of view of a chosen character (a first-person narrative) 2. Include yourself in the story 3. Invent a funny event in the story 4. Include a new character in the story 5. Change the end of a fairy tale  6. Change the place of the plot

Fairy Tales From the Past with a Modern Twist Sara Futač and 6th E form students In Croatian class while working on Croatian Tales of Long Ago, by Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, the students used the storyteller paper tool (which they made at home) to present six fairy tales: How Quest Sought the Truth, Fisherman Plunk and His Wife, Bridesman Sun and Bride Bridekins, Little Brother Primrose and Sister Lavender, Yagor and Toporko and His Nine Brothers. On the top side of the storyteller tool, they drew four drawings associated with a fairy tale. Inside of it, they set eight questions. There was an answer below each question. Children were divided into groups of 4, 5 students. Each student in the group had a different fairy tale and a storyteller tool tied to it.  They played with each other using the storyteller tools, asking each other questions, answering them and commenting on which part of fairy tales they particularly liked. They especially commented on the end of every fairy tale and chose the best one.  After that, they creatively retold the fairy tales by changing the ending. They made it contemporary placing it in the present time and at today's locations.

Classic and Modern Fairy Tale Croatian language teacher Marcela Kučeković and the 8th grade students The main goal of teaching was to find the differences and similarities between modern and classical fairy tales. They were given the task to read the modern fairy tale The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. They had to emphasize the problems that this fairy tale offers, find a classic fairy tale with the same problem and then read it. In class pupils were divided into groups according to which classic fairy tale they have read. They were given the task to write the similarities and differences between The Little Prince and their chosen classical fairy tale.  After discussing the similarities and the differences they found reading The Little Prince and the classical fairy tale, the students were given the task to classify the characteristics of the fairy tales according to whether they belonged to a classical or a modern fairy tale. When the results were compared, the students were given the task to act out one of the problems that The Little Prince fairy tale had and rehearse the performance.  After the role-playing game was finished and the students commented each performance, the following task was to design a frozen image of the classical fairy tale. The characters of the classical fairy tale had to speak about themselves after defrosting.  When the students spoke out as if they were one of the characters of the classic fairy tale, they were ready to write their own fairy tales. The results were quite interesting, unpredictable, imaginative and mythical. Students created fairy tales with different titles: Snowman, Black-haired Woman, The Theft of Gifts, The King and the Servant, The Kingdom of War, Where the Witch Goes, so Goes the Fairy too, The Return of the Witch, I Stay or I Go Back...

World of fairy tales?! NO, it's the world I live in! (Croatian teacher Vesna Čondić and 6th A form, 6th B form students) In English class, students read the fairy tales The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Young King, The Devoted Friend, by Oscar Wilde. In order to perceive and identify the issues that these fantastic works show, from various activities students learned about their timelessness: the world of fairytales is the world in which they live; fairy tale characters: their good and bad deeds are recognized in the works of the people who live today, people who do not recognize the true human values (think only of the satisfaction of their own interests and needs), but also people who think of the common good, who are ready to sacrifice themselves for the good of the community and its future.   1st Activity QUIZ TIME: Do I know fairy tales? In each class, two students were assigned in advance to draw up questions to check the reading, understanding and recognition of the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde, but also the similarity of the motives that were observed in these fairy tales with the motives of previously read fairytales by world famous fairy tale authors, Andersen, the brothers Grimm, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (eg. What is the resemblance to the characters of the young king and Cinderella?, Which Wilde's fairy tale reminds you of Andersen's fairy tale, The Little Match girl?). At the beginning randomly drawn and marked with sticky notes captains had to choose three students in their team. It was played in three rounds, for every correct answer the contestant/team was awarded with a point, but also with a candy. 2nd Activity PRESENTATION of RESEARCH ( GROUP WORK): A fairytale of our choice Students, according to pre-formed groups, needed to analyze the chosen fairy tale, its theme, plot and characters and then actualize the problems of the modern age that they noticed: the inadequacy and unfairness of society and individuals who care only for their interests, neglect of other people's needs, prices of incorrect life values, etc. They had to express their notions and understandings orally and present it in the form of posters. During the presentation, members of the other groups carefully followed and at the end of the presentation commented on the accuracy, quality and completeness of the posters, as well as the performance of the presentation. 3rd Activity DRAMATIZATION (GROUP WORK): This is how we experienced it In the instructions of the given task, the students were supposed to act out the selected part of the fairytale: to write the dialogues themselves, prepare a role play based on the characteristics of the characters, their feelings and the fairy tale's moral. For the top performance they had to practice acting: speech, movement, mimics. Students had to prepare costumes and props, and if possible, they also had to design the scenery. 4th Activity  CREATING a MENTAL MAP (INDIVIDUAL/ PAIR WORK): Fairy tales have taught me...  In the end, the students themselves or in pairs in the form of a mental map, needed to form morals (life values) that they recognized by reading and processing these but also other fairy tales. In the final conversation, the students commented on the curiosities and possible difficulties encountered in the realization of activities, but they also emphasized the satisfaction of recognizing and raising awareness of the problems they witnessed in their environment, and on young generations to make this world a nicer and better place.



Value dice Let me tell you a story Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of diversity of all world's cultures, our way of expression and the way to be people. It is based on the knowledge, openness, communication, freedom of opinion, moral sense and belief. Tolerance is harmony in difference. In Students' Council class children talked about tolerance, mutual respect and understanding motivated with the upcoming International Tolerance Day (annually observed on November 16). Students listed and sorted out all the positive values that tolerance brings as also all the negative values that intolerance brings. Tolerance - Positive and Negative Values Positive Values – hope, empathy, respect, forgiveness, justice, compassion, sharing, patience, friendship, love, acceptance, trust, kindness, equality Negative Values – hate, anger, gossip, violence, neglect, humiliation, fear, loneliness, shame, anxiety, sadness, pain Through the activity Dice up a story students rolled the dice which was covered with different words (values) on each side. The word they got they had to make up a short story with the topic on that value. Emili (5th D form) wrote a classic fairy tale In the Magic Dust about greed. Marta (6th D form) wrote a modern fairy tale The Magic Book about empathy. In English class 5th D form made a poster on tolerance with their form teacher. Through the activity Fairy Tales Then and Now students worked together and wrote a modern version of Rapunzel following the given instructions. Also, Mara (5th D form) wrote a classic fairy tale A Shiny Star.

Project logo Maja Dolenec i učenici 7.razreda English teacher Maja Dolenec and the 7th grade students 7th grade students tried to link English words that are connected to the project topic Let Me Tell You a Story and fairy tales. We used brainstorming techniques to accomplish that. After the students wrote 15 to 20 words, they started to design the layout of the project logo. Students Dina, Nikol and Ema designed their logo for the project. Ema's logo was chosen as team Croatia's logo in Erasmus+ Let Me Tell You a Story project.

Maths stories One of the workshops at „Math Night“ is related to Erasmus+ Project and \"I'll Tell You a Math Story\" activity. At the workshop there were several groups of 4 to 6 students where they rolled the dice with different numbers on it. The students wrote down those numbers on the paper. Then students were divided into two smaller groups (pairs or 3 students). They used the numbers written on the paper and four basic arithmetic operations to create and solve mathematical tasks. They wrote a mathematical story from the numerical expression. They were also told to find the inspiration in the characters of some famous fairy tales. They read their stories and the most creative story was rewarded at the end of the evening.

First project bulletin We have prepared a bulletin that presents our previous school year project activities. Since we weren't able to personally hand over bulletins to our partners on mobility that was to take place in Berlin, we decided to send our partners the bulletins by post. Sending it, we hope to bring joy to all!

Grannies and grandads' fairy tales Grandparents Read and Tell Stories 2nd grade students and their teacher Martina Mikulaš Grandparents read fairy tales to their grandchildren. A grandmother read her grandson a bedtime fairy tale via a video call. This was a safer way to read stories due to the current global Covid-19 pandemic situation. One grandmother was reading fairy tales to her granddaughter while a grandfather was playing the guitar to mark every unexpected event in the story with a louder music.

Fairy tale presentation Presentation/poster about the fairy tale of your choice Branko Ćopić: Hedgehog's Home Hans Christian Andersen: The Ugly Duckling 2nd grade students and their teacher Martina Mikulaš We read Branko Ćopić's story Hedgehog's Home and afterwards we made a sponge hedgehog. After reading Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Ugly Duckling, we made stick puppets and made a puppet theatre.

Presentation/poster about the fairy tale of your choice J.M. Barrie: Peter Pan 3rd grade students and their teacher Nika Maslać While working on J.M. Barrie's story Peter Pan we came up with the idea of making an ID card for a boy who knows nothing about himself except his name. By making an ID card we learned a lot of Peter Pan's different qualities and skills. We also created a poster that reminds us every day why it is important to remain a child and why it is important to grow up.

Science fairy tales Math teacher Natalija Križanac Momčilović and the 8th grade students The 8th grade Earthlings, Ela Zeljko, Lara Guberina and Petar Glavaš, took us with the alien Allie on a space journey where Alli's alien friends were introduced and other 8th grade Earthlings reminded about the Earth's motions – rotation and revolution. Allie, in fact, suffered a space traffic accident – a meteor hit his spaceship and damaged it, and he needed the help of an alien friend who would come to his rescue and repair his spacecraft. But in order to calculate precisely when and where it will land, they need to learn something about how the Earth moves. Alli's earthly friends, Ela, Lara and Peter, stepped in to help. They explained in details to all of us the way, the importance and consequences of Earth's movements, and with a short quiz they finally checked if we had listened carefully to them. They successfully accomplished their task because Alli's friends soon arrived and repaired the spacecraft. Allie managed to move on to space adventures and – who knows – until some next encounter with his new friends from this beautiful planet of ours...

National fairy tales writers 2nd grade students and their teacher Nika Maslać Reading various report books in the class, we decided to find out more about the writers who are significant for our education. With the presentation, which we made together, we discovered who Sunčana Škrinjarić and Sanja Pilić were. We connected them and compared them with the most important fairy tale writer Ivana Brlić Mažuranić . We discovered that both of them were winners of the same awards. With different interesting facts, we discovered that Sunčana Škrinjarić was the only writer, after Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, who accepted the fairy tale as a form of presenting her vision of childhood. What we found particularly interesting was that Sunčana and Sanja are a mother and daughter. Sunčana left great works behind, and Sanja became one of our best and the most read contemporary writers

Interview with a modern story writer 2nd grade students and their teacher Martina hosted our well known writer Željka Horvat Vukelja on Zoom. Her most famous stories are The Brave and The Rebus Stories. She told us one of her stories and answered the questions we asked her. She admitted she wasn't very brave when she was little. She finds ideas for his stories in ordinary things like closets, pencils, keys... While she was growing up, she didn't know she was going to be a writer, she wanted to be a teacher. Stick dolls for her video stories, which she began filming during the pandemic, she makes herself. The meeting was very interesting to the students. We were motivated to try at writing rebus stories ourselves.

Shadow play The Shadow Theatre 2nd grade students and their teacher Katerina Lalić The shadow theatre was created using the projector, projector screen, and paper dolls made by the students. We focused on Croatian children’s writer Sunčana Škrinjarić and her story The Dance Dress of the Yellow Dandelion. The students participate in the shadow theatre and there is a soundtrack of the story in the background.

Trip to the library In the Library 2nd grade students and their teacher Martina Mikulaš visited the school library. The librarian Branka introduced the students to the school library. She reminded them of the famous books and picture books. She also reminded them of the adventures of various characters in the stories. The students learned how to borrow a book and how to take care of their books. They also listened to the story The Mouse in the Library. They talked about why we say the book is our best friend. The visit was short, but very interesting. We look forward to our next visit to the library - the book empire.

Second project bulletin

Reading books with family Let's read books with family! In the 3rd grade, our students' mums replaced the teacher and read the stories to the whole class. It was cheerful and interesting. Students like it when something new and out of the ordinary is happening. We've invited our parents to come again and read more stories.

Starting and ending stories Start and Finish the Story Several events that took place in our country, the love for the animals and the creative heads of the 3rd graders have created an interesting story The Happy Dog. Each student participated in the creation of the story with at least one sentence. The first sentence was started by teacher Martina and the following sentences just came out of students' heads. We hope that with this story we have encouraged people to change their minds.

Project outcomes During our two year work on the Let me tell you a story project, we had the opportunity to explore new teaching methods and implement them in our own teaching. Cooperation between six countries has provided the enrichment of both the teaching and private lives of the participants.It has also brought further cooperation between teachers and students of our schools. Inspired by the experience throughout all the mobility and activities, the idea of creating the film Let me tell you a story was born. The dissatisfaction of a child and the desire to become an adult leads us to various spells, plots, but also to the emotional end. Under the guidance of teachers Nika Maslać and Nikolina Tolj, the second year students created the film as the crown of their two year work on the Erasmus + project.

A Note of Appreciation The Let Me Tell You a Story project has opened a whole new world for the entire project team. The project research, learning, dedication and selfless work introduced them to something new, magical and fairy-tale. Imagination has shown us that we can do anything and we have discovered places we wouldn't usually dare to set foot in. A big thank you to the brave heroines and heroes of our school's project team of teachers: Ivana Derniković, Ivana Varga, Jelena Cvrlje, Maja Dolenec, Dolores Brkljačić, Vesna Čondić, Martina Mikulaš, Matija Pintarić, Marcela Kučeković, Natalija Križanac Momčilović, Mladen Ćurić, Nika Maslać, Mateja Pernar, Katerina Lailć, Sara Futač, school's head teacher Jadranka Salopek and our project coordinator Ivana Pavić.