Instead of simply teaching kids about specific fairy tales during class, choose one to use as the focus of your classroom decor. Choose "Jack and the Beanstalk," and make a giant beanstalk out of green poster board or construction paper that stretches from floor to ceiling. Opt for "The Princess and the Pea," and create a stack of colorful cushions in the corner of the room. Place an object underneath the layers of pillows, allow the kids to take turns laying on them and have them try to guess what object is buried in the pillows.
Preschool kids can learn a variety of lessons from the simple narratives of fairy tales. Rather than relying on tales that kids have heard repeatedly like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" or "Cinderella," choose fairy tales that may be new to them. Flip through a copy of "Grimm's Fairy Tales" or "Aesop's Fables" to come up with different stories like "The Peacock and the Crane," "The Queen Bee" or "The Frog King" around which to build your lesson plans.
Fairy tale crafts help pique the interest of preschool students, whose attention spans can sometimes be short. Use a variety of arts and crafts materials to create projects they can wear, like necklaces and bracelets made from painted pieces of pasta. Bring in a variety of old clothes so the kids can play dress-up and be their favorite characters from the fairy tales. Take the class out to a local theater production when they put on a play that features a fairy tale theme.
When you want to teach your young students about foreign cultures, utilize the stories that have been handed down from one generation to another to teach them about traditions in other lands. Folk tales such as the Chinese story "The Fairy Grotto," the Spanish tale "The Water of Life" and the French classic "The Boat That Went Both on Land and on Water" are just some you can use to introduce a foreign perspective to your students.