Fairy tales examples of stories

10 Best Classic Fairy Tales For Your Kids

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ― Albert Einstein.

Fairy tales often take people to the sweet memory lane of their childhood. The memories of magic, dragons, and evilness getting defeated never fail to bring a smile to our faces. 

Reading or listening to classic tales can help parents bond better with their children and nurture their creativity.

So, if you are looking for the best bedtime stories for your children, this blog will surely help you. Let’s explore some of the fascinating and timeless fairy tales that can bring lots of colors and blooms to your kid’s childhood. 

Cinderella is one of the most popular fairy tales of all time. Its story remains an all-time classic and will remain the same for future generations as well.

Cinderella was a young woman who lived with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Thanks to her glass slipper, she found her Prince Charming and escaped her difficult life. 

Cinderella’s story has been adapted in many variations over history. Cinderella’s popular version “The Brother Grimm” was published in 1812. Recently, in 2021, Disney has released a new Cinderella movie with a modern outlook. 

Moral: This story tells kids how they should never stop dreaming despite all the hardships that life presents them with.

Related Reading: Top Reading Apps for Kids: How to Use Screens For Stories 

Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale that celebrates real royalty. In the story, a spoiled prince turns into a beast and imprisons a beautiful young lady named Belle. It’s only when he learns to love Belle that he becomes the prince again. 

This fairy tale is assumed to be inspired by a real-life couple who lived in France in the 1500s. The man had a condition called hypertrichosis. This condition causes abnormal hair growth on the body. 

So, he was referred to as a wild man and was kept in a cage for a long time. In a surprising turn of events, he married a royal court servant’s daughter, and they had 7 children.

Moral: We should value internal characteristics such as kindness over other superficial or physical qualities. 

Rapunzel is a beautiful and motivational fairy tale. The story shows how a poor couple lost their daughter Rapunzel when they stole fruit from their neighbor’s garden. It also focuses on how the angelic voice of Rapunzel reunites her with her lover. 

Moral: This story gives two bold messages that one should never steal, and evilness never wins. 

Related Reading: Best Children’s Books to Stimulate Kids’ Imagination & Creativity

Snow White is a young princess and is defined by her inherent kindness and pure beauty. In the story, an evil queen spends all her life envying Snow White’s beauty. 

But, in the end, Snow White finds her happiness by marrying the prince. In contrast, the evil queen loses her peace and leads an unhappy life while chasing meaningless physical beauty. 

Moral: This story has an insightful moral — if you lust over physical beauty, you lose your peace in the way. The story also encourages kids to be kind and pure like Snow White. 

A rebellious Red sets off alone to meet her grandmother with instructions to never step off the forest path. But she disobeys the instructions and attracts the attention of the bad wolf. 

Now, what happens next depends on the version you are reading. In the Charles Perrault version, Red gets gobbled up by the wolf. However, across Europe, North America, and many other tellings, she was saved by her hood or a guy with an ax. 

Moral: This fairy tale intends to teach children to follow directions and express their courage at the time of need.  

Jack is a rule-breaker and loves to prank. Once, he traded a family cow for a couple of magic beans in the hope of climbing the beanstalk and reaching the giant’s castle to steal his magic possessions. 

This story will help you teach your naughty little pranksters that no matter how daring you are, one should never cross certain boundaries in life. 

Moral: The story shows that undying greed for more will take away what you already have in your life. 

Related Reading: Learning Styles That Make Learning Easy-Peasy For Kids

Sleeping Beauty is slightly similar to Snow White. The story revolves around a Sleeping Beauty who was cursed by a wicked fairy. Beauty spends all her childhood sleeping, but on her 16th birthday, her prince charming finds her and wakes her up after years of slumber. 

Like other fairy tales, different interpretations of Sleeping Beauty are also available. However, Disney’s Maleficent in the year 2014 achieved the most success. 

Moral: The story shows that growing up has its own hurdles but in the end, love conquers all.

If you want to raise a little animal helper, this is the perfect story for you. Puss is a bold trickster who masquerades as the servant of a nobleman. His tactics bring him fame, fortune, and a wife at a young age. 

The boots in this fairy tale symbolize wealth and wisdom. The story is set back in the 16th century when people used to be barefoot. So, having boots at that time was a significant sign of wealth. 

Moral: The story’s moral is simple — your wisdom can help you win wealth. 

This tale talks about the hunger of the heart and stomach. Hansel and Gretel are abandoned by their stepmother in the forest. Both children can’t resist eating a real gingerbread cottage out of hunger. But they get caught by a cannibal witch who lives there.  

In the end, they shove the witch into the fiery oven to escape. 

Moral: This story will teach your kids how fortunate they are to have food on their plates. It will help them be grateful in life and never have any egos! 

In this story, a frog helps a princess to find her golden ball in the pond and then invites her to live in the castle. It is then that the frog turns into a prince. The storyline of The Frog Prince is quite similar to Beauty and the Beast.

Moral: The story teaches that it’s important to value kindness and goodness over physical beauty. It also tries to convey the importance of keeping our promises.

Related Reading: Best Riddles for Kids of all Grades (With Answers)!

Are you wondering how centuries-old fairy tales can benefit your child in this digital age? Well, no matter how old fairy tales are, they can always make your kid’s childhood happy and memorable.  

Be it The Brothers Grimm or Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, all the classic magic stories can benefit your child in a number of ways:

Storytelling plays a significant role in a child’s development. That is because 95% of the human brain develops by the age of six. Therefore, reading or listening to fairy tales can build imagination and literacy for your child. 

Your child can engage in fantasy land and learn to distinguish the fantasy world from the real world. They can learn to express their thoughts and ideas better. 

Some studies even indicate that storytelling helps to improve vocabulary and confidence among children. 

Through stories, children and even adults can learn how to handle certain problems. Cinderella’s story fits perfectly in this context. It tells how a young woman escapes her difficult life despite her wicked stepmother and stepsisters’ cruelties.  

Stories allow people to step into the character’s shoes and learn how they can easily conquer problems and presents children with an interactive method of learning. This is one of the reasons why SplashLearn creates visually appealing and character-based animated games. 

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Children connect better with the characters in the stories. This helps them learn from their favorite characters’ life stories. The stories can show children how to believe in goodness amidst problems and anxieties. 

For example, Beauty and the Beast portray how selfishness can turn a prince into a beast. It also shows how beauty and kindness can turn a beast into a prince again. 

Fairy tales can bring cultural flavors into your child’s life. Different versions of stories are available today that can help your children interact with different cultures.  

Fairy tales show that life isn’t perfect. Children discover that bad things happen to everyone. But if you are emotionally resilient, you can overcome all challenges. 

This helps children stay strong during hard times and always believe in the richness of life despite hardships. 

Exposing your child to the world of fantasy can stimulate their imagination. It might amaze you to see how children can give a spin to traditional stories and interpret them into something completely different. 

For instance, the University of Hawai’i conducted a study to evaluate the positive impact of fairy tales on children. In the study, researchers exposed children to different classic stories to understand their impact. 

Interestingly, after listening to Little Red Riding Hood, a seven-year-old boy draws the wolf to the size of an ant. He used his imagination to create a funny interpretation of the bad wolf and show his courage.  

So, when you introduce a story to your child, you are providing them with an opportunity to think and imagine different scenarios. 

Every fairy tale is attached to a moral lesson. Fairy tales often leave us with a strong message, whether it is being good or believing in love or friendship. 

You might have a hard time making your toddler understand where the difference between good and bad lies. But stories like “The Emperor’s New Clothes” can better show to your kids, the consequences of convincing yourself that something was true when it wasn’t.

Through classic fairy tales, parents can bond with their children in a great capacity. They can relive their childhood memories with their kids and build some new memories.

You can forget anything in your life, but you can never forget all the classic fairy tales that you have heard in your childhood. Have you ever thought, why? 

That is mainly because stories capture our interest in a much better way. And once we learn something with an interest, we tend to not forget that information. 

SplashLearn creates learning games to spike and capture kids’ interest. The engaging characters and visuals motivate the little ones to learn. Different mediums like games, worksheets and courses on Math and English can help them remember and retain concepts their entire life. 

Today, you can try SplashLearn with your kids to see how they actually interact with interesting learning mediums. 

Parents, sign up for free!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which is the oldest fairy tale?

According to some researchers, The Smith And The Devil is the oldest fairy tale. It goes back by 6,000 years to the Bronze Age.

Do all fairy tales have morals?

Yes. Fairy tales are written with a motive to teach a lesson to children via interesting characters and a storyline

How do fairy tales affect child development? 

When children listen to fairy tales often, it affects their imagination and helps them to think about new things. The fairy tales affect the emotional, physical, and mental development of a child. 

Do fairy tales have the truth? 

Fairy tales have been passed down from many generations and cultures. However, today there’s no solid source from where these tales come from, but they have been inspired from somewhere. So, we can say that some fairy tales are adaptations of real-life events. 

Are fairy tales timeless?

Yes. The storyline might have changed in many tales with time, but the central idea has always been the same. 

What is the right time to read fairy tales to your child?

There’s no specific time to read stories to your kids. However, most parents prefer to read stories before bedtime. But you can read them to your child anytime as soon as they turn two.

Examples of Fairy Tales: 17 Famous Stories to Know

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What's your favorite fairy tale? These memorable short stories often involve magic and legendary deeds. The fantastical characters found in a fairy tale include elves, fairies, witches, and dragons. Fairy tales are traditional stories told and retold through generations that are usually spun from folklore. Many were finally written down and have had lasting fame.

Cinderella

Cinderella grew up with an evil stepmother and stepsisters. They would not let her go to the prince's ball, but her fairy godmother made it happen with magic. Cinderella danced with the prince and they fell in love. Since she had to leave by midnight, she ran and lost one slipper. The prince found the slipper and searched for her. After he found her, they were married and lived happily ever after.

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Elves and the Shoemaker

A shoemaker and his wife were very poor. One day they ran out of leather, so they went to bed. In the morning, they found a pair of shoes and a passerby bought them. The next night, another pair of shoes appeared. The third night, they hid and saw two elves making shoes. In gratitude, they made clothes for the elves, as winter was approaching. The elves were very happy and went on to help someone else.

Emperor's New Clothes

A vain emperor hired two people to make him some new clothes. They tricked him, telling him the cloth was not visible to people unfit for his position or who were very stupid. At first, the people pretended to see the clothes, but a child says that he is not wearing clothes and people start to agree. The emperor realized he was swindled but continues the parade anyway.

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Frog Prince

A frog asked a princess why she was crying. She replied that she had dropped her golden ball into the pond. The princess promised anything if he would get it for her. The frog got the ball for her, and asked to eat from her plate, live in the castle, and that she be his friend. She agreed, and the frog turned into a prince as he had been under a spell from a witch. They married and lived happily ever after.

The Gingerbread Man

A little old woman baked a gingerbread man, and when she took him out of the oven, he ran away. The woman, her husband and some of their animals chased him. No one could catch him. He came to a river and a sly fox told him he could jump on his tail and he would take him across. He did and the fox went deeper and the gingerbread man had to jump on his back and then on his nose. When he got to his nose, the fox ate him.

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Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Goldilocks saw a cabin in the woods and entered. There, she found three bowls of porridge. One was too cold, one too hot and the other just right, so she ate that one. Goldilocks then found three chairs, one too hard, one too soft, and the little one was just right and she sat in it and broke it. Of the three beds, one was too hard, one too soft and one just right, so she fell asleep. The bears came home and frightened her and she ran away.

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel's wicked stepmother took them into the forest and left them there. Soon, the children came upon a house made of sweets and they ate some. The evil witch that lived there locked them in a cage and was going to make a soup out of them. Gretel got out of the cage and pushed the witch into the boiling water. The children found treasure at the house. They took it home and they were never hungry again.

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Jack and the Bean Stalk

Jack took the family cow to sell and traded it for magic beans. His mother was angry and threw the beans out of the window. The next morning a giant beanstalk had grown. Jack climbed the beanstalk and found a giant there who had gold coins. Jack stole them and took them home. Later, Jack returned and saw a hen that laid golden eggs and he stole that, too. The third time he tried to steal a magic harp and the harp cried out. The giant chased Jack down the beanstalk, but Jack chopped it down and the giant fell.

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood's mother sent her to Grandma's house with a basket of goodies and told her not to talk to strangers. A wolf asked her where she was going and she told him. He went to Grandma's house, locked Grandma in the cupboard and put on her clothes. Little Red Riding Hood was surprised at Grandma's eyes, ears and teeth, remarking on how big they were. The wolf said the teeth were better for eating, and he pounced. She screamed; when some woodcutters heard her cry, they ran in and rescued her.

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The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The town of Hamelin was overrun with rats. The Pied Piper offered to get rid of the rats for 50 pounds, and the mayor agreed. He started playing his pipe. The rats followed him, and he led them into the harbor. He went back for his money, but the mayor only paid 20 pounds. The Pied Piper wanted to teach him a lesson, so he played his pipe and all the children followed him out of town. The mayor sent men to find the children, but they never found them again.

Pinocchio

Geppetto was a poor carpenter who carved a puppet that became alive. He named him Pinocchio and sent him to school. One day Pinocchio joined a puppet show, but the puppet master wanted him for firewood. He begged to be spared and told him about his poor father. He was spared, and the puppet master gave him five gold coins for his father. Pinocchio learned how to be honest and tell the truth and eventually became a real boy.

Princess and the Pea

A prince wanted to make sure he married a real princess. He devised a test for an unexpected guest who claimed she was a princess. He placed a pea beneath 20 mattresses and 20 feather beds, believing that only a princess could be sensitive enough to feel the small pea. The next morning, the princess said she did not sleep because of something hard in her bed. The two were married and lived happily ever after.

Sleeping Beauty

A princess was born, and an old fairy placed a spell that she would prick her finger on a spindle when she was 16 and die. The good fairies made another spell so that she would only sleep for 100 years and a prince would awaken her. When she was 16, the witch, disguised as an old lady, showed her a spinning wheel, and the princess touched the spindle and fell asleep. The good fairies decided to make everyone sleep. After 100 years, a prince from another land found her and kissed her. Everyone awoke, they married and lived happily ever after.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White's evil stepmother wanted to be the fairest in the land and was jealous of Snow White's beauty. The stepmother ordered a huntsman to kill Snow White, but the huntsman spared her life. Snow White came upon a cottage that belonged to seven dwarfs, who let her stay. Soon the wicked stepmother found her, disguised herself and took her a poison apple. Snow White fell into a deep sleep, and the dwarfs made a crystal coffin for her. Prince Charming came by the cottage, saw her, kissed her, and she awoke. They were married and lived happily ever after.

Three Little Pigs

Three pigs set out to build their own houses. One pig built a house of straw and the second a house of sticks because they were lazy. The third took the time to build a strong house with bricks. When the big bad wolf came, he huffed and puffed and blew the straw and stick houses down. He couldn't blow down the brick house, and the pigs put a pot of boiling water in the fireplace. The wolf fell into it and died.

Thumbelina

A woman wished for a baby, even a tiny one. A fairy granted her wish and gave her a seed to plant. When it bloomed, a tiny baby was inside. A toad fell in love with the baby and kidnapped her. A swallow rescued the baby and took her away to warmer lands. There, Thumbelina found another tiny person just like her. He asked her to marry him and she became queen of the flowers.

Ugly Duckling

One duckling did not look like his brothers and sisters, and he was sad. He decided to run away. When he came across a cottage, he stayed there for a while but the children scared him. The duckling left and spent the winter in the pond. In the spring, he saw his reflection and realized he was a swan.

Importance of Fairy Tales

Literary tales and stories of the classics.



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To read Russian folk tales means to join the culture of the people, to one's roots, to begin to understand its past and foresee the future. The tradition of reading bedtime stories to children has not disappeared. It is fairy tales that teach children to distinguish good from bad, truth from lies, good from evil. Ivan Tsarevich, Baba Yaga, the Frog Princess, the cunning fox and the simpleton wolf remain with us for the rest of our lives.

Russian folk tales

Russian fairy tale - a gift to the whole world. A. N. Afanasiev

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin Russian fairy tales

Fairy tale brush by Ivan Bilibin

Folk and literary tales

Tales of Hans-Christian Andersen. Danish Tales

- Andersen - the love of my life! - admits Lyudmila Braude, translator. — His fairy tales are for everyone — both for children and adults... Continued

King of fairy tales. A story about Andersen under the heading "Life of wonderful children"

Tales of Charles Perrault. French fairy tales

Fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. German fairy tales

Real fairy tales should be a little scary and very alluring. Like a gingerbread house in which a terrible witch lives. In winter, it's time to re-read the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, in which Hansel and Gretel show miracles of resourcefulness, getting out of the gingerbread house! Continued

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