101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

40. Fairy Tale Time

Background

Story telling is an ancient art dating back to when humans first communicated with

words. It has provided most societies with an oral history long before written records

were kept. Stories help perpetuate the foundational myths people use to teach succeeding

generations about their cultures. For instance, fables, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales have

been used to transmit life’s lessons to countless people in a number of different cultures.

Although modern technology has diminished its importance, story telling still has the

potential to help solve problems. Stories from the past can help suggest ideas for today’s

problems. Create a story and we create stimuli that can trigger new thoughts and con-

cepts. The richer and more elaborate our stories, the richer and more elaborate the stim-

uli.

One special type of story, with great potential for sparking ideas, is the fairy tale—a

story of magical events with a moral. Such stories are excellent sources of idea stimuli for

all sorts of problems. Because they serve as a source of unrelated stimuli, stories do not

have to be related to the problem or faithful to the original fairy tale. In fact, it sometimes

is beneficial if the story is as different as possible.

Objectives

• To help participants generate as many creative ideas as possible


• To help participants learn how to use the activities to generate ideas

Participants

Small groups of four to seven people each

Materials, Supplies, and Equipment

• For each group: markers, two flip charts, and masking tape for posting flip-chart
  sheets


• For each participant: one sheet each of three different colors of sticking dots
  (^1 ⁄ 2 ” diameter) and one pad of 4 x 6 Post-it®Notes


• Copies of common fairy tales such as “Rapunzel,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “Little Red Rid-
  ing Hood,” “Tom Thumb,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White,” and “Rumpelstiltskin”

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