Each child worked with a partner. They began by writing down what they already knew about their animals and then what they wanted to know. The children used many sources to answer their questions; one of the most popular was the Internet. After reading their sources, they took notes on note cards, and then created an outline.

Next they began to compose their reports on the computer. Revisions were made and the children printed out the final copy of their reports. Each partnership was responsible for making a poster which included a picture of their animal as well as important and intriguing facts about the animal. These posters hung on the wall outside our room. Right next to the posters, the height of each animal, measured out with string, was taped to the wall. For a further challenge some of the children created word searches, poems, pictures and diagrams which they included in their reports. After each project was completed, the partnerships presented their animals using their posters as a guide.

We hope you enjoy meeting the animals as much as we enjoyed studying them.

The next step was to read other fairy tales, as well as their fractured version, and then decide what kind of transformation took place. They discovered many kinds of transformations: the setting or time period changed, the point of view changed, there was reversal in character or gender, and the plot changed when the story ended differently.

Finally it was time to write our own fractured fairy tales. The students (still in their groups) began by deciding on a well known fairy tale and discussing possible transformations. When the stories were finished, the children began the task of putting it into play form. The scripts included in this book were written after the plays were performed. During rehearsals lines were often changed, but not written down, so the students took time to write out the new and improved scripts. We hope you enjoy these original plays written by our class.