Fia's Fairies aims to introduce children to the Irish language and promote the use of the language at home and at school. It is a great way for Pre-school, Junior and Senior Infants to learn new words.
Every day, Fia and her best friend Ameer take a journey to Fairy Island where they learn the enchanting Irish language through exciting adventures with a pair of fairies, Bláithín and Cuán, and all their magical friends. As well as teaching Fia and Ameer new words as gaeilge, the fairies also teach them about kindness, acceptance, and bravery - all whilst bringing our young audience along for the fun!
You can stream all the shows on RTÉ Player here!
Created by Little Moon Animation, they highlighted the importantance us that the stories in the series reflect experiences that our young audience can relate to.
We want children to feel encouraged at the end of every episode to understand, repeat and use new words and common phrases as gaeilge independently. Ultimately, we want children to feel encouraged to become more autonomous and motivated language learners.
Each episode centres around a theme that is supported by common phrases and the introduction of two new words in the Irish language that are opposites e.g. Cailte/ Faighte (Lost/Found). This gives clear context for our lessons and by the end of each episode, our hero characters, Fia and Ameer, repeat these two words correctly themselves in a specially designed recap for our young viewers.
These recaps have been designed to live independently on online streaming platforms so that educational playlists could be curated for homeschooling and classroom resources.
You can see the full playlist on YouTube here!
When devising the approach at the heart of Fia’s Fairies, Little Moon Animation were mindful of the young audience's varying levels of ability, development and progress along a continuum of learning.
It was important to ensure that the series could be accessible and enjoyable to all children regardless of whether they already have a basic understanding of Irish and/or exposure to the language at home or in a school setting.
As with any TV show that has educational goals, there was a clear consultation with experienced educators within both the Irish language and Primary School arenas during pre-production to ensure a solid educational framework was underpinning the stories. The approach to the language learning part of the show was reviewed and endorsed early on in the process by members from both Maynooth University and Séalbhú of DCU. SEALBHÚ
(DCU) is a cross-faculty research that aims to consolidate and co-ordinate Applied Linguistics and Language Planning research in Ireland, while the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Maynooth University is known for the provision of a distinctive student-centred learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Ireland.
The approach to the series was loosely based on the Curaclam Teanga na Bunscoile (Primary School Curriculum) as outlined by the Department of Education and Skills and also drew on Aistear as an educational framework that encourages a playful approach to teaching and learning.
Each script from the series was also reviewed and approved by an Irish language consultant, Cuán Ó Flatharta, with over 15 years’ experience teaching primary school children through full immersion in the Irish language.
While the show will be most useful for children who are attending or preparing to attend English-medium schools, it also provides additional reinforcement for those young children who will be learning in an immersive Irish-medium school who may or may not already speak the language natively at home.
Fia's Fairies is produced with the support of Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland, RTÉjr, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the incentives for the Irish Film Industry provided by the Government of Ireland.
