Fairy Tales

This is always a favorite theme that I love doing. There are just so many good fairy tales and stories to choose from, and so many activities and ideas for each one. Sometimes I think I could focus and do a different fairy tale each week for a few months! But, they'd probably get sick of it by then. These last 2 weeks, we learned a few different fairy tales and focused on reading comprehension as we read books, retold stories, acted them out, retold with puppets, and put story events in order (sequencing).

Dramatic Play

Castle! I was so excited to find this new cardboard castle on a yard sale site a few weeks ago! It was the perfect front, then I used my old box castle walls for the sides. I filled it up with costumes, fit for a King, (and queen, princess, knight, wizard, dragon and fairy).




The second day, after we had read Jack and the Beanstalk, I added the beanstalk. I didn't have it the first day, because I wanted to read the story first so they'd know what it was. It added a great element to their play, and turned the castle into the giant's castle too.




This was a popular center, all 4 days! Most of the kids got dressed up as soon as they walked in the door to school! We had princesses and knights playing and going center to center each day.

Blocks

The first day, was the castle, filled with the medieval finger puppet characters.


The last 3 days, it had the beanstalk, and a few costumes for the Jack and the Beanstalk story.

Art

Fairy Tale sponge painting shapes


Jack and the Beanstalk-inspired collage items and glue


Glitter Glue


















Play dough with princess Cinderella and Sofia Playdoh toys. Plus, ABC stamps and molds, since not everyone loves Princesses. I forgot a picture.

Small Manipulatives

ABC magnets on the magnet board, with ABC order charts. This was pretty popular and was usually busy with kids matching the letters in ABC order.


Princess number matching cards in the pocket charts


Building things (no idea what these are called)


Jack and the Beanstalk wood characters and castle for story re-telling



3 Little Pigs story re-telling


Tortoise and the Hare puppets (forgot a pic)

Opposites puzzle

Writing Center

I forgot pics, but we had out different colored pens and scented crayons this week

Outside

SNOW!!! Brrrr...and cold! A reminder that we got outside in the cold, so always pack warm things for them to wear! We had a lot of cold fingers this week. We didn't stay out long, cuz it was cold and the air quality wasn't great, but since it wasn't in the red, we went out for 10 minutes to run and get the wiggles out! So please always send cold weather gear!

Large Group


We learned a fun new song, to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel. Running in circles is perfect for getting out wiggles!
All around the castle,
the knights chase the dragon,
The dragon thought it was so fun,
Roar goes the dragon!

Day 1, we read Jack and the Beanstalk. Then we listened to a song with the story and learned the chorus and sang along. They split into 2 groups and had to put the 5 story cards in order of how the story happened. Then they retold the story with the wood figures. Then we drew small castles (we talked about using rectangles and triangles and practiced those shapes on the board first) and added clouds to them. Hopefully, if our beans can grow during this cold winter, they'll grow up our beanstalks to the castle!


Day 2, we read Tortoise and the Hare and acted it out with puppets. We did it twice so they all got a turn to be in it. We talked about opposites (fast and slow) from the story, then worked on an opposites puzzle together. We also did opposites in our knights and dragon song (fast/slow, quiet/loud, high/low, etc).

Day 3, we read The 3 Little Pigs. Then I put them in groups of 3 to each "build" a house for the pigs, from Goldfish cracker boxes. They did SO WELL! I mean in getting along. There was no arguing and crying. We often try to do things in groups, and they're so busy hogging stuff, they don't get much done. We had none of that today. They just all poured glue everywhere and made beautiful houses! Then we got back together with our pig toys, and dog puppet (as close to a wolf as I had) and retold the story a few times so they all got turns to have parts.


Day 4, we watched The 3 Billy Goats Gruff, instead of reading it. They loved having a video! Even if it was less than 10 minutes long. Again, like days previous, we acted it out together. Then they colored their story wheels. As they finished, I had them use their story wheels to tell each other the story, and hopefully they came home and told it to you, too!