Fairy Tales Unit

We kicked off our Fairy Tales unit by pulling out some books.  Almost all my units begin with literature – and I plan around that. 

These plain gold crowns that I purchased in bulk off Amazon have come in handy for many activities so far.  I had a following directions activity where I decorated one crown with certain shaped stickers.  I told the girls to copy my design of shape, but they could choose different colors.  

Once they had completed the following directions activity and we took a picture, I allowed them to add more stickers to their little hearts’ desire.

 

 

 

 

The Princess and the Pea

For a couple of days we focused on The Princess and the Pea.  I have a ridiculous amount of scrapbook paper at my disposal and that came in handy for this activity.  I had strips pre-cut and just wanted the girls to practice their scissor skills by snipping the strips in half.  Then they used glue sticks to stack up the mattresses and add themselves wearing a crown to the top.  It was a cute little activity that helped with a few fine motor skills that the girls needed to practice.  

The next day I filled a small sensory bin with split peas (because yes, I’m that literal with the princess and the PEA) and some felt rectangles.  I grabbed a couple of Little People figurines to make the prince and princess and the bin was complete.  Because I had all these materials on hand, this one was free.  I was pleasantly surprised that they played so well with this bin for quite a while.  When I moved on to the next sensory bin we transferred the felt quilts to the doll house so they could continue the fun with their Calico Critters.  It’s funny how sometimes such simple activities become a favorite with the tiny humans.

The Three Little Pigs

We also made the houses using straw (I disassembled a hay bale from my fall decorations), popsicle sticks, and Lego Duplos as bricks.  I turned my hair dryer into a Big Bad Wolf with my amazing artistic skills (please read that with heavy sarcasm) and we tested each house.  *The hair dryer didn’t always knock it down easily so I may or may not have bumped the houses as my wolf blew on them.  All in all it was a fun and messy activity.

Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Billy Goats Gruff

We also read Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  On days where I didn’t have as much for each fairy tale, I read several different ones.

After reading Jack and the Beanstalk the girls practiced comparing numbers by rolling the die and putting that many beans on the chart.  Then they compared to see who had the most beans for each roll.  It was a quick and easy game to set up since I only needed a large die, construction paper, and two different types of beans.

After reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff, I challenged the girls to make a bridge using Lego Duplo blocks across my construction paper river.  My favorite part was when they spontaneously decided to grab their Calico Critters and act out the fairy tale.

Cinderella

On Cinderella day we explored the pumpkins we had gotten at the pumpkin patch.  The girls were NOT fans of the smell and did not want to touch the inside.  Maybe next year we’ll get further in our pumpkin explorations.  You can see the girls wearing their crowns with lots of extra sticker gems after they got to decorate them.  We also pulled out all the fancy dresses from our dress up box so the tiny humans could dress up as various characters from Cinderella.  They had endless fun with this. 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

For Goldilocks and the Three Bears I had lots of versions to read and compare.  I used peas and beans as the base for our sensory box.  Then I added beds and chairs of different sizes from our Calico Critters.  I grabbed our blonde Little People girl as Goldilocks and three different sized bears from our sorting bears.  For porridge bowls I used half of a plastic Easter egg and a cotton ball as porridge.  So again, I was able to complete a thematic sensory bin for free!  Hooray!  Sometimes as I’m purchasing things to complete units I feel like homeschooling is a black hole of spending.  So I’m always happy when I can figure out ways to save some money here and there without sacrificing on experience.

 

While the tiny humans played in the sensory bin I made some porridge (oatmeal) with cinnamon and raisins.  The kids had not had it before so it was a new experience.  You can see by the third picture below that only one of them actually liked it!

 

 

The Little Red Hen

I have to admit that sometimes things don’t always go as planned.  I found this bread recipe on a Little Red Hen post on Pinterest and gave it a try.  The kids loved baking – mixing, kneading the dough, watching it rise, and tasting the final product.  But I didn’t love the way it tasted.  And I LOVE bread.  So I used this chance to teach them that things don’t always go as planned. We laughed about it and said we’d try a new recipe another day.

So we decided to try a new recipe.  This one turned out much better.  This also gave me time to actually put together a Little Red Hen sensory bin together.  Sometimes life is busy and you don’t get to it all.  It worked out in the end because I was able to let them play around in the sensory bin while we waited for the dough to rise on the second recipe.  I also had time to get their chicken dresses ironed so our outfits could match the theme!  

In the end, it was a success even if it didn’t go as planned!