The fairytale originates in the popular tradition and is characterized by short stories focused on fantastic events and characters such as fairies, ogres, giants, and so on; an adventurous journey in which individuals act, making attractive the experience of change.
Fairytales allow the emotional decentralization that makes reconsider and retrace moments of life that become history and not just past time.
The fairy tale can be transformed into a "therapeutic" game tool through the development of imaginative and understanding skills, by supporting the development of important aspects of the personality and helping to master the new emotional states that, in some moments of life, can create fears, closures, regressions, tensions, internal illnesses and even less adaptive behaviours that hide attempts to face more difficult experiences.
In the second phase of the project, the children will develop a new fairy tale in group considering the "5 golden rules to write a fairy tale" according to the "Gianni Rodari Grammar rules": to choose a long time ago, to describe the good and evil characters, challenges to overcome and events that are repeated, presence of a magical element, a positive ending. In addition, creative writing exercises are proposed to prepare the group for the construction of a "final fairy tale".
Working with children is a source of constant discovery and surprise of what they can develop through creativity and imagination. The fairytale is not "all" what the children need but it is definitely a means to stimulate their "creativity", as synonymous with "divergent thinking".
Here, you can find all fairytales invented by pupils involved in the WATCH project.
The fairytales are divided in 4 sections, one for each participating school.