"The Flying Suitcase"

 Target group: 9 to 11 years old.

Method: Illustrations.

 This age group is often very involved in drawing, cutting, painting or any other means of visual expression.

Motor skills are developing so that the sense of detail becomes extremely good, and products of a high quality can be made.

It will be possible to analyse the text of a fairy tale, for example, simply by asking the pupils to draw it. They will automatically seek the point which, in their eyes, is the essence of the fairy tale.

The results will also give an immediately measurable indication of the individual pupil's understanding of the text, and can form the basis of a further, and perhaps more critical, attitude to the contents of the text.

A regular text analysis can also be included by comparing various professional artists' interpretation of the fairy tale.

The teamwork entailed in the production of "The Flying Suitcase" as a strip cartoon, for example, develops natural relations among the pupils, and it also initiates a dialogue between the pupils and the teachers regarding the organization of the work.

In this case too, it is the intention that the pupils' products can be distributed to pupils in other countries. Foreign language teaching can gradually be initiated through the production of texts for strip cartoons, for example, which are to be read in other countries.

Furthermore, we would like to point out the possibility of using computers, although for many schools this possibility is still very limited. By using the computer's drawing programs, it is possible to produce drawings which later, if necessary, can be exchanged by electronic mail. Hand drawn illustrations can also be transmitted with the help of a scanner.

After working with "The Flying Suitcase", the pupils can make up and illustrate their own fairy tales. Read more about this at the end of this chapter.

Hans Christian Andersen  - and the children of Europe