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The Travelling Musicians

From Grimms' Fairy Tales, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

This reader retells "The Travelling Musicians" (sometimes called "The Town Musicians of Bremen") from Grimms' Fairy Tales, first published in the early nineteenth century. The Brothers Grimm collected folk tales from across Germany and published them for families to share. This story shows children that friendship and cleverness can help you find a home, even when things seem hard. A few period terms have been modernised.

Band
Purple · Pre-readers and first readersTypical starting range: ages 4–5
Length
short · about 348 words in 4 sections · 4 pictures
Source
Grimms' Fairy Tales, Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
First published
see the About page in the reader
Regions
Canada · United States

Included formats

  • · Web reader and PDF
  • · EPUB for e-readers
  • · Home-print sheet
  • · Folded booklet
  • · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
  • · Worksheet
  • · Quick Check (6 questions) with answer key
  • · Read-aloud script
  • · Colouring page
  • · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Lesson at a glance

Reading
about 8 minutes at this band
Pause questions
3
Words to Know
4
Quick Check
6 questions, with the answer key
Let’s Talk
3 questions for afterwards
Worksheet
questions, an activity and a drawing prompt

About 35 minutes with one story, all of it.

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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The same story

The Travelling Musicians at other bands