Teacher Guide Grimm Grimmer Grimmest Season 1

1. Overview • Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest is a wildly enchanting fairy tale podcast series. Weaving in and out of a classroom of witty grade-schoolers and a world full of curious creatures and mischievous foes, each episode features a Grimm fairy tale retold with a surprising flourish. Students can listen to their peers anticipate plot twists and question the logic of these very Grimm tales. • Each episode comes with an Instructional Sequence for teachers that includes an in-class activity and a worksheet that can be completed independently. • Seasons 1 • 10 episodes; average 20 minutes each • Target grade range: K-5th grade • There are two different activities for K-2 and 3rd-5th grade

2. The Flow • Before listening: Note on the structure: Each of these fairy tales are being told to a classroom full of grade-school students so you hear both the story from the narrator as well as the responses, thoughts and questions from the kids. As the host acknowledges at the top of each episode, we typically think of fairy tales as being really tame and kiddy. Grimm fairy tales are NOT those kinds of fairy tales. They are gritty and scary and dark and they don’t shy away from topics like death, abandonment and fear. The introduction at the top of the episode is the same every time and is about two minutes long. You can go ahead and forward to the start of the new story each time if that makes things smoother for you. Review the Instructional Sequence for the episode

• While listening: If you’d like, you can pause the story when the host stops to ask the class of students a question and ask your students to answer it first. Then you can continue playing the episode and see how the answers given by students on the show compare to yours.

• After listening: Follow the Instructional Sequence on the next page and then distribute the activity sheet.

3. Implementation Ideas: A. Keep track of the morals/messages of the stories. Ask students to START with the moral or lesson and create their own tale that communicates the same idea. These Grimm tales often feature strange things like talking appliances and half-boy/half-animal creatures. Tell students they are going to create some stories around strange and 1 magical creatures. Cut up three different colors of paper into small pieces. On one color write down the names of different objects, on one color write down the names of different animals, on the third color, write down a verb in the gerund (talking, sneezing, etc.) Have each student pick one scrap of each color and tell them they need to create a story featuring the object as one character, the animal as another character, and the verb as part of the action of the story.

B. Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest is an example of growing superlatives. Have students pick other adjectives (slimy, stinky, loud, scary) and think of examples of each. (A kid yelling is LOUD, a recess yard is LOUDER, standing right next to a jet engine is LOUDEST.)

4. Standards Alignment CCSS ELA • Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. • Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. • Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text. • Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text. • Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

2 Instructional Sequence for Teachers

Preparation: • Cue up episode. • Write the vocabulary words for the episode on the board. See the Reference Sheet for the words per episode. • Print copies of the activity sheets for all students.

Before the episode: • Many fairy tales have a lesson or message they are trying to communicate. Listen for what you think the lesson might be in this story. • Turn to the vocabulary words on the board. • Here are some words we’ll hear in this episode. Let’s say them out loud together. • Does anyone know what these words mean? I’m going to use each of the words in a sentence and you tell me what you think it means. • After you’ve reviewed all of the words, ask some student volunteers to come up and --without words--act out the words and have the class guess which word is being demonstrated.

Play episode

After playing episode: For K-2 • Before completing the activity sheet, have a discussion: • Who are the characters in the story? What did you think about them? • Did you agree with what the kids in the classroom had to say about the story? • Do you think the story is trying to teach something? What is the lesson we should learn from it?

For 3rd-5th grade • After students have completed the activity sheet, have a discussion: • Let’s see if we can get to the most efficient summary possible. Who wants to share what they wrote? Have students who think their summary is even more efficient volunteer and they can keep going until the class feels they’ve reached the best summary. • Who were the major characters in the story? Refer to the Reference Sheet if needed. You’re going to work in pairs to create character profiles. These will include their name, a picture of them, what they want, and three adjectives that describe them. • What do we think were the lesson(s) to take from this tale? • Does that lesson come up for you in your lives? How? Anyone want to share a story?

Wrap Up • Share the various pieces of work that students have created. • For 3rd-5th: With the character profiles, choose one example each day to put up somewhere in the room. After listening to all of the episodes, have students do a gallery walk, looking at what all of the characters want and the adjectives chosen to describe them. Are there any common themes that come up? What does that say about the genre of fairy tales? 3 Episode Title Main Key Vocabulary What’s the Characters Message? (Some ideas if you need them..)

1 Rumpelstiltskin Miller; Miller’s daughter; miller, Don’t lie to others King cunning, spindly, to sound weep, cackle important.

2 Hans My Hans’ father; Hans’ nocturnal, bagpipes, Don’t promise Hedgehog mother; Hans My infernal, claim, things to others Hedgehog; King with the disgusted that aren’t yours golden crown; King with to give. the silver crown; King with the copper crown 3 The Iron Stove King; Queen; The Iron spoiled, selfish, Sometimes you Princess Stove/The Prince heirloom, need to do the Miller’s daughter; enchanted, hard thing to be Swineherd’s daughter journey, truly happy. Toad

4 The Glass Boy (Tailor’s Apprentice); apprentice, Do what feels Coffin Weird little man; Girl; vagabond, ravine, right for you, even Stag chamber, if it comes at a refuse price. 5 The Musicians Old donkey; Old dog; Cat overhear, misera- Teamwork makes of Bremen Rooster ble, feast, petrified, the dream work. Town scuffle

6 The Peasant’s Peasant man; Peasant’s acre, till, marvel, Don’t Clever daughter; Emperor plead, defeated underestimate Daughter the power of something small. 7 The Old Lady Girl; Brother; Fox; caravan, intelligent, You can’t be brave in the Woods Old woman shutters, embrace, unless you’re transform afraid. 8 Princess Parrot King; Followers; Jester posse, ashamed, Remember to Prince (Princess Parrot) jester, inherit, laugh at yourself. mortified

9 Little Chick Eagle; Baby; Woodcutter; grumble, furious, A promise kept is Lenchen; Old cook; Big steeple, loyalty, a friend made. boy barrelling 10 The Water of King intention, curse, Be kind and Life Oldest son endure, betrayal, kindness comes Middle son traitor back to you. Youngest son Blue dwarf Princess