FAIRYTALE CASTLE

There are two different concept fairy tale session areas in the Fairy Tale Castle. In these areas, storytelling and on-stage performances are held in parallel with their concepts. • Land of Legends: It is the Land of Legends floor decorated according to the Seljuk period. It involves the animatronic robots of Turkish legends Nasreddin Hoca, Kaloghlan and Dede Qorgud, and the story of King Midas narrated with the mapping method. In addition to these, the stories of Stargazer, Sahmeran and Phoenix are narrated. • Mysterious Journey: An interactive storytelling space for children aged 5-11 only. The concept was created with a fiction in which fairy tale heroes were brought together. There are many fairy tale heroes from The Wizard of Oz to the Sky Whale, from Sleeping Beauty to the Frog Prince, and the participating children take an active role during the tour.

Participants from Turkey and countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and TRNC other than Eskişehir are participating Festival of Thought- Provoking Fairy Tales, which is being held face-to-face and online every year in November since 2019. While Fairy Tale Castle brings hundreds of people together with different disciplines such as yoga, ecology, play, drama, science and art in the magical world of fairy tales, the realities of the fairy tale world and the world we live in are compared, and the thoughts that are emphasized in the fairy tales, that are not mentioned or that take place between the lines are questioned through activities. The programs in the Festival of Thought- Provoking Fairy Tales which are organized under the guidance of the author Dr. Nilay Yilmaz, are prepared taking into account the World Children's Book Week, Children's Rights Week, World Freedom Day, World Philosophy Day, World Tolerance Day, World Game Day, World Origami Day and World Drama Day, which are celebrated in November. The Festival of Thought- Provoking Fairy Tales aims to build a bridge between the past and present.

Workshops are held on the works of famous painters such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Frida, Wassily, Kandinsky and Salvador Dali, their lives and the art movements that they pioneered. Paint techniques, ceramics and sculpture workshops, content for different branches of fine arts are produced by use of various materials. The Ceramic Fairy Tale Objects Exhibition, which has been handled with an artistic point of view by using ceramic materials by Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts Ceramics Department students since 7 September 2021, is presented to the visitors with different interpretations from the eyes of 10 different artists. The exhibition area will be constantly renewed with the works of art students and will continue to meet its audience at the Fairy Tale Castle. I'm Thinking-I'm Drawing videos provides simple drawing techniques, and the easy way of painting is shown to our followers on the screen. A different fairy tale hero is designed each time with the Origami Workshop with Fairy Tales.

We have design and picture videos that we shoot to be posted on our Youtube channel. "Make Your Toy" video content we have prepared to prevent consumption and use their own creativity, and practical design videos that they can make with materials at home, allow all our children to watch it over and over again.

The children had the opportunity to act by combining the tales and yoga activities organized online, and breathing, balance and flexibility exercises especially during the pandemic period, during their stay at home. Moreover, they find the opportunity to move in the company of music and rhythm with the "Dance and Movement Workshop" continuing at the Fairy Tale Castle.

Educational content is created for children to develop their communication, reading, comprehension, writing, vocabulary development, flexible thinking, social and cognitive skills, and creative writing and creative reading activities are organized.

The game is used as a thinking tool in non-game areas to encourage problem solving. Traditional and digital games are used to find solutions to many situations in everyday life through fairy tales.

Rights and values workshops are held on fairy tales and stories in the Fairy Tale Castle. Children gain awareness in these areas through activities such as the concepts of rights and values, gender equality, environmental and nature awareness. Tales are evaluated from different perspectives and questioned through the concepts of rights and values with the "Let's Think-If were so" information boards.

In STEAM workshops, content that combines science-technology-engineering-mathematics and art is prepared through fairy tales to help children develop their "thinking skills". 

Philosophy for Children workshops aim to provide children with reasoning, thinking and discussion skills over a concept chosen based on fairy tales and stories.

The "Music in the Castle" concerts, organized to introduce and meet our visitors with classical music, were organized by Prof. Burcu YAZICI, with the support of conservatory students and professional musicians. Classical music concerts have reached approximately 52,356 spectators since 2017.

"Acquaintance with Instruments" event is organized and mini concerts are given to children to enable children of the first school year to get to know musical instruments, sounds and physical structures closely and to increase their interest in classical music.

Family Trainings are organized periodically and on different subjects in order to assist parents in matters related to children in family processes and to transfer knowledge and experience.Fairytale Castle shows with concrete examples that education continues throughout life with the education programs given for families.

As part of the “Where Children Grow” Swedish Children's Literature exhibition hosted by the Fairy Tale Castle, events were organized for experts working with children and children on 7-8 December 2017. Berättarministeriet (Ministry of Tales), who came to Turkey as a project guest from Sweden, shared their experiences with the expert team of Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality working with children about the training programs they developed on storytelling and creative writing. As part of the workshops with children, Sanna Horn from the Ministry of Fairy Tales conducted part of her own educational programs by meeting with 15 children. On the opening day of "Where Children Grow" Swedish Children's Literature Exhibition, Gözde Durmuş from Bilgi Child Studies held a short workshop promoting the exhibition with 12 children. Germany Carl Schurz Schule students from Frankfurt, the sister city of Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality, drew Eskişehir paintings in the workshop held at the Fairytale Castle. In the work "Painting Workshop" held at the Fairy Tale Castle, 13 students of Carl Schurz Schule studied Eskişehir as a subject. SGDD ASAM Association of Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants Children of refugee families from various countries who participated in the painting course opened by the Eskişehir Multidimensional Support Center funded by the European Union (EU) of the Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD), reflected their dreams on the canvas. The exhibition of paintings on the theme "Women and peace by the hands of children" began to be exhibited on 19.01.2018 and was presented to art lovers at the Fairy Tale Castle for a month. Paintings of 10 children took place in the exhibition. In the exhibition where there are a total of 20 paintings, the stories told by the children who drew that painting were also included along with the paintings. These short stories pointed to many points in the social sense and allowed refugee and immigrant children to tell their experiences.

The educational practices and workshops carried out by the Fairy Tale Castle were shown as good examples in education by different institutions that are competent in their fields, and presentations were made to the educators at conferences and workshops. “Unbroken Dreams”, a children's rights-based story book nourished by creative drama and creative writing, has emerged as the output of a long-term and interdisciplinary practice with 15 children under the leadership of Author Dr. Nilay YILMAZ. The aim is to develop critical and creative thinking skills and to create social awareness in the context of children's rights. The study, which was selected as a good example in education by the Sabancı University Education Reform Initiative (ERG), was presented at the 13th Best Practices in Education Conference held on April 2, 2016. The educational activity book of the story Unbreakable Dreams, prepared by the author Dr. Nilay YILMAZ, "If You Don't Play, I Will be hurt", on the other hand, has been the source of many activities and classroom practices that serve reading comprehension and practice gains. Fairy Tale Castle also took part as a speaker in the conversation on "Education-Culture-Art Based on the Child's Right to Participate" at the 1st International Cappadocia Children's Book Festival held between April 15-19, 2019, and the "If You Don't Play, I Will be hurt’’ Workshop. provided the opportunity to meet with the children in Nevşehir. At the 16th Good Practices in Education Conference Local Workshop held in Eskişehir on May 4, 2019, “Unbroken Dreams” was presented to the educators in Eskişehir, this time as a good example from the local. STEAM applications have also been added to the workshops based on this book. STEAM education enables children to have creative thinking, problem solving and imagination skills. Through the story, science, mathematics and design are removed from abstract, boring and paper-based concepts, and carried to the dimension of life. STEAM provides fun and unlimited exploration opportunities for children to solve the problems in fairy tales and stories with their own creativity and solutions, as well as to raise awareness of social awareness and children's rights. In line with the problem they encounter in the story, children reach a conclusion with their own efforts at every step from beginning to end. Thus, an interactive, educational and interdisciplinary story reading activity is carried out. "If you don't play, I will be hurt (Rights and Interdisciplinary Education with STEAM)" workshop which was prepared in this regard was selected as a good example in education by Yıldız Technical University and was presented to educators at the National Storytelling Congress (UHAK) held on October 11-12, 2019.

1793 New Year's gifts collected by the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Fairy Tale Castle in 2015 with the social responsibility project were distributed to children living in rural areas to create an emotional tie between children who have never met each other. As the parties who bring and receive gifts with the project, it aimed to mobilize their awareness and sensitivity, contribute to becoming more social, stronger and sharing individuals through the fraternal relationship that children who have never met each other will feel between them. it is aimed to activate the awareness and sensitivity of children who have never met each other, as the parties who bring and receive gifts, and to contribute to them becoming more social, strong and sharing individuals, thanks to the fraternal relationship that they will feel among them with the project. The "I'm Reading-I'm Playing" project of the Turkish Education Volunteers Foundation has been met with children in cooperation with the Fairy Tale Castle. Further, the Fairytale Castle organizes online events accompanied by field experts. These activities are aimed at children, adults or special groups, and joint work continues in cooperation with NGOs.

Children who are not able to come to the Fairy Tale Castle may access to the fairy tales with sharing of the storytelling videos we shot through Youtube channel and social media accounts.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_7KUOx046M