Fairy Tales

Castles castles everywhere! I love getting out these dress-ups and toys! The hardest part is always narrowing down which stories to tell, I probably need 6 weeks to give this theme justice, but here's what we did in two:

Dramatic Play

Medieval Castle


Filled with dress-ups fit for a queen. Or princess, king, prince, knight, dragon, or magician.




And a modern kitchen with a microwave, because they gotta eat, and the kids keep asking when they can play with the kitchen again. It was played with constantly! At one point, a castle full of princesses defended their castle with a banana, whisk, and grapes from a horde of attacking dragons,  so I'm sure they're grateful it was there!

Week 2, Jack's beanstalk was added after we'd read that story.

Blocks

Toy castle with fingerpuppets




Jack and the Beanstalk figures and story cards were added to the castle.





Can I just share one of my biggest teaching regrets that comes around every time I pull out my Jack and the Beanstalk box? I bought this at a UEA conference over a decade ago. There were a whole bunch, all marked down. I couldn't afford much and was getting some other puzzles and dominoes kits I love, so I only bought the one. I don't remember getting to use it while teaching Kindergarten, so I didn't see it's value then either. The kids LOVE it! Every year I pull it out, they go crazy for it. We use it together in large group, but I have to have it out to play because they love it so much. They love retelling the story and acting it all out with these little wooden figures. And the CD and story cards are so great at telling the story and helping us sequence it. I decided a few years ago to go to their website and get other stories and I was shocked at how expensive they are! So I just continue to be grateful for the one I have, and covet the others on their site. If you want them for your kids, or you're a teacher visiting the site, you can find them here.

I also had out nursery rhyme puzzles and a Frozen memory game. The memory game was a big hit, and I helped get them into small groups to play and they did great at taking turns and getting along. I was impressed!

Art

Glitter glue! So much better than the loose stuff, and such a good small motor skill to squeeze those little bottles!


Paint stamps


Sequins and sparkles! I love how it even shines in the pictures. Sparkly pom poms too, plus leftover glitter glue.


We also used the art table one morning to make our gingerbread men snack. They made the dough, and rolled and cut out the cookies. Then played play dough, and I added a Princess Sofia and Cinderella play doh toys. They shared and played impressively well with those!

Small Manipulatives

Gingerbread Man floor puzzle


Fairy lacing cards


Opposites puzzle (after we'd done it in small group)


And by popular demand, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears mini-dramatic play set up.  They loved acting it out so much, they begged to do it again. So it was out for free play time when they came back the next day, and they played it over and over and over. I loved hearing them retell the story again and again and tell each other the lines "my porridge is too hot!" etc. It was darling. And such great reading comprehension!!!


The magnet board had the alphabet and a pic for each beginning sound.


Writing table

"Magic" color changing markers


Fairy tale stickers


Striped markers


Snack

Day 1, we made, decorated, and ate gingerbread men, and decorated an extra to take home. We also read the story that day.

Day 3, we ate porridge to go along with our reading of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Most of them really liked it! My family eats it for breakfast regularly. I don't think it's even technically called porridge, but thanks to preschool, it's what all my kids call it! We use this:

Large Group

We learned the word "pretend" and determined with each
story we read, if it was real or pretend. And that fairy tales are pretend stories. Because pigs don't build houses and bears don't eat porridge! They loved pointing out those silly things in each story.
We also learned the song, The Knight Chased the Dragon. It's to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel."

All around the castle, the knight chased the dragon.
The dragon said it was so fun, pop goes the dragon!

We held hands and danced in a circle as we sang, slowly, then faster and faster. They loved it.

Day 1, we read The Gingerbread Man, then did the floor puzzle together.


Day 2, we read Jack and the Beanstalk and put the story cards in order, and listened to the song and acted it out with the wood figures.

Day 3, we read Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, then used the masks and props to act out the story a few times so everyone got a turn.

Day 4, we read the 3 Little Pigs and put story cards in order of the story. Then they each got pieces from a sequencing puzzle to put together, first-middle-last. Each child got to "read" their story by telling what happened in their puzzle first, next, then last. They did so so great!

Small Group

Week 1, my group read The Tortoise and the Hare and talked about the opposites in the story (fast and slow). Then we matched these opposites puzzles and took turns telling what our opposites were.

The other group made these cute sticker scenes.

Week 2, my group decorated crowns and I helped each child review the letters in their name, and add their name to their crown with letter stickers.

The other group played with my math counting bears.

Shapes

Dramatic Play

Pizza Restaurant







I have play doh to make the pizza crust, or also felt pizzas. I have shredded paper cheese, plus topping shapes cut out of foamies. They can make the pizza, work the register, or be a customer. They were awesome! Such great play went on here all 2 weeks! They loved the order forms and making and delivering pizzas, plus scanning the credit cards. They were even great at cleaning up, and sorting the toppings to where they go. I was so impressed.

Blocks

Bowling, see above pic

Magnatiles for 2 days


Shape puzzles




Art

Shape stickers

Shapes and glue


Shape stamping with paint


Play doh with shape cookie cutters and blocks to stamp shapes. We also mixed the colors of the play doh, which was a great review of last week.

Small Manipulatives

Gears


Shape lacing cards


Shape puzzles




Shape dry erase boards


Shape magnets


Writing

Big shape stencils


Shape stamps

Texture markers

Small shape stencils


Snack

Each day we ate a different shape, depending on which shape we'd be learning at large group.

Circle muffins with circle chocolate chips (thanks to one of our friends!)
Square cheese crackers
Rectangle graham crackers
Triangle pita crackers

Outside

The sensory table had red beans and scoops and bowls


Large Group

We learned new songs; Jake the Snake, Shape-a-Loo, and I Spy a Shape

Our word changed each day, depending on which shape we learned; circle, square, rectangle, triangle

Day 1, we read Shapes, added circles to our wall, found circles around the room, and matched shapes to our shape train on the wall.


Day 2, we read What is Square? and found squares around the room, and added squares to our wall. We sorted buttons by shape.


Day 3, we read Bear in a Square, added rectangles to the wall, and found rectangles around the room. We used pointers and played I Spy a Shape by searching for and tracing shapes around the room.

Day 4, We read Wing on a Flea, found triangles around the room and added triangles to the wall. Then we played shape and color bingo.

Small Group

Week 1, My group made shapes out of wikki stix.
The other group used tweezers to place pom poms on these shape mats.


Week 2, My group played shape dominoes.

The other group practiced sorting buttons by color and then shapes.

Colors

I think I say every theme is a favorite theme, but I really do love teaching about colors! My main objective is to teach them the 3 primary colors, and then which ones to mix to make secondary colors. We mix colors over and over, then talk about it all year, so I hope it sticks!

Dramatic Play

Paint Store










This was their first time with the cash register and they loved it, so of course there were tears and sharing issues too. One rule I have with sharing is that "part of sharing is waiting." The kids often accuse a child of not sharing, really meaning that the other child won't hand over what they want when they want it, which isn't a realistic expectation. So I remind them that part of sharing is waiting for our friend to finish, and I help them ask their friend, "can I use that when you're done?" After they've asked, I encourage them to find something else to do while they wait, and I also remind the friend with the sought-after toy, that someone is waiting for a turn and to let them know when they're done. I also reminded them it would be out for 4 days, so there'd be plenty of times for turns. Sure enough, by day 3, there was no more fighting over it because it wasn't new anymore.

The kids loved being the store employees and the customers. The customers, especially, had a fun time "painting" every surface of the preschool with their paint cans and brushes. There was a lot of great social play, conversation, and problem solving. They also learned to clean up after themselves.


Blocks

Mega Blocks


Waffle Blocks


Duplo Legos for 2 days

Art

Easel painting with primary colors


Dot markers


White slime and markers (I make my slime thick enough that they can color it-and we use my dried up markers bin, since they won't color on paper, but will color on slime, and they can't ruin dried up markers) They can also choose to play with the slime if they don't want to color, or as they color it.
     




Glue and jello shakers. It's a messy art and requires me nearby to help dump the used powder back into jars, but it's a preschool favorite, and makes the room smell so good!


Small Manipulatives

Color folder games




Paint chip clothespin matching, clothespin horse color matching






Colored links


Pom poms and tweezers with rainbow cards, and pom poms with tubes to drop them through
     
Writing Table

Colored pens

Color word stickers


Rainbow scratch paper


ABC Stickers

Snack

We had rainbow goldfish crackers, and sorted the by color before we ate them. I forget how little they are, but after being shown what to do, they could do it!

We made painted toast. We used colored milk, and brush a little onto white bread with a pastry brush to color it (too much will be soggy). We used primary colors so they could see the results of mixing them.


We made smoothies with every color of the rainbow. I had the frozen fruit divided in bowls by color, and they each got to add a piece of each one, then we blended it to see what color it made in the end. We used strawberries, a banana, green grapes, peaches, blueberries, and purple grapes. I was surprised how few kids would even taste it. I ask them to at least try everything, then only eat it if they like it. Most at least tried it, but some wouldn't even do that.

Outside

The sensory table had white containers, then bottles of water in primary colors. They could mix the colors in the white bowls and see what colors they made, then dump them out and try again. I refilled them each day, so they got plenty of turns to mix the colored water.
     

We did sheet spraying, with spray bottles of colored water. It's a great small motor skill because it uses their little muscles to spray, plus they're mixing colors again.


Large Group

Our new songs this week are Scat the Cat, Mitch the Fish, Colors in a Pot, and Sing a Rainbow

Our word of the week is Primary Colors

Day 1, we watched this great Primary Color video from Sesame Street.

We read White Rabbit's Color Book. Then we set up our experiment. We placed color water in 6 clear jars, 2 for each primary color. Then we paired them together with a paper towel leading out of each one, into another jar. They were paired to mix the primary colors to mix. So, red and blue, red and yellow, and yellow and blue.
We also put the primary color cards on the wall.


Day 2, we checked our paper towels and found that the colored water spread up the paper towels and dripped into the empty jars, mixing the primary colors to make the secondary colors.
We read Mouse Paint. We added the secondary color cards to the wall like a color wheel. We used a color dice to play a color sorting game.


Day 3, we read Freight Train and worked on sorting by sorting buttons and bugs by the colors of the train cars.


Day 4, we read Elmer the Elephant, then made an Elmer picture. They had an elephant picture, and painted on tissue paper colored squares by using liquid starch. They turned out so great!

Small Group

Week 1, my group worked with me making a play doh color wheel. We mixed the primary colors together. It's hard work at this age, and I had kids telling me they couldn't do it, but I remind them they can if they try, and we worked those colors together until they mixed.
The other group played with color puzzles.


Week 2, my group mixed primary paint colors to make secondary colors.
The other group colored in their journals about their favorite colors, I added their words as they finished coloring.