Fairy Tales Take “What If” Spin in Grade 4 Production

The beloved world of fairy tales turned upside down as fourth-grade students offered a new perspective full of fun anecdotes and modern twists on the traditional telling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood in their cross-curricular stage production of Twisted Tales.

Our Grade 4 students have been learning about the elements that make up a fairy tale. They gave new life to these stories by "starting with a sentence and ending with a tale." Once scripted, they commenced to center stage in the Taylor Performing Arts Center for a performance that featured them wearing handmade blue and yellow T-shirts to symbolize the two groups who would narrate the stories. The show opened with an original song performed by the students and played on the piano by Lower School music teacher Rachael Jungkeit before transitioning to the first story of Goldilocks followed by Red Riding Hood. Both narrations began with the original telling of the story and were immediately followed by a retelling of the tale -  replete with some recognizable pop culture elements such as cell phones, pizza, scooters, Uber Eats, Google Maps, and the Ring app! 

The performance ended with a talk-back as the students detailed the process start-to-finish and how the production came to be. Theater teacher Lisa Daly noted that the students created their own original alternate versions to showcase how the stories might look in a modern telling. In language arts class, the students learned about the history of fairy tales, their elements, and ways to deconstruct the original tale to create a “what if” version.

Following the performance was an art show and reception in the cafeteria. The installation featured both written essays and the colorful artistic depictions of the two stories on a circular canvas, which the students worked on in class with art teacher Sue Bennett 1973.