Fairy Tales

Preschoolers celebrating Tell a Fairy Tale Day will create their own fairy tales based on randomly selected props, solve word puzzles about fairy tales and divide the names of fairy tale characters into syllables. They will also develop agility and physical fitness by performing a set of gymnastic exercises.

Educational aids:

a card with a castle (with windows cut out so that they can be “opened”), a card with princesses, an envelope with a princess glued to it, the instrumental version of a ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’ song, 3 boxes, objects associated with fairy tales (e.g., gingerbread, slipper, straw, basket, fish, frog, pea, bean), everyday objects (e.g. spoon, crayon, hat, cotton balls, stone, pot), picture cards depicting the places of the action, the instrumental version of a ‘Jingle Bells’ song, picture cards with fairy tale characters, “Fairy tale” song, sleigh bells, gymnastic bags, two cones, discs/hula-hoops/sashes, colorful handkerchiefs, “The second Waltz” song, sheets of paper, paints, brushes, water cups, markers.

Description of activities:

1. ‘Hello to those, who…’ – greeting children – teacher sits with children in a circle. Teacher says: ‘Hello to everyone who…’ and says the rest of the sentence. Children concerned with the spoken slogans stand up, go around the circle, and return to their seats. Teacher pronounces more sentences until all children are greeted:

Hello to those who like fairy tales,
Hello to those who have something blue,
Hello to those who have a brother,
Hello to those who like to smile, etc.

2. “Fairy-tale castle” – didactic activity – teacher puts on the carpet an illustration of a castle (with windows cut out so that they can be “opened” by children during every lesson) with a card with princesses glued underneath. Then, teacher asks children: “Which window are we going to open today?”. Then, teacher asks selected child to open the window with five stars on it. Next, teacher puts an envelope with glued princesses on the carpet and asks children if the princess from the envelope is the same as the princess from the opened window. Then, teacher reads the letter from the envelope:

Dear Children,
Hopefully, yesterday’s trip to the land of the Fisherman and the Goldfish taught you that greed and avarice are very bad traits that do not pay off in real life. As you can see, fairy tales teach a lot of wisdom. Therefore, you should remember to read books that can take you to an amazing fairy-tale world. We should especially remember this on February 26. Do you know why? On that day, we celebrate Teel a Fairy Tales Day and the wisdom they have taught us. Today we will be visiting the magical world, creating our fairy tales, and learning about the adventures of other fairy tale characters. Have a good day, children!

3. ‘Read, read, read to grow’ – movement activity – teacher plays an instrumental version of ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’ song and sings the ‘Read, read, read to grow’ lyrics. Children line up, walk, and each time they hear the word ‘read’, they spread their outstretched hands as if they were reading a book.

Read, read, read to grow

Tune: “Row Row Row Your Boat”
unknown author

Read, read, read to grow
Your brain you’ve got to feed.
Stimulating, Educating
Because you love to read.

Read, read, read a book
Travel anywhere,
Worldwide, you decide
A book will take you there.

Read, read, read a book
Beginning to the end,
What a way to spend the day
A book’s a special friend.

4. “We create a fairy tale” – didactic activity – teacher arranges three boxes on the carpet: in the first one, there are props associated with fairy tales (e.g. gingerbread, slipper, straw, basket, fish, frog, pea, bean); in the second one – everyday objects (e.g. spoon, crayon, hat, cotton balls, stone, pot); in the third one – pictures depicting the place of action. Then, teacher asks which children want to take part in the activity. Children draw objects from each box and try to arrange their fairy tale, in which they use all drawn items. The activity lasts until all children will participate in it.

5. “Fairy Tales” – movement activity – teacher plays the instrumental version of ‘Jingle Bells’ song and sings the ‘Fairy Tales’ lyrics. Children make a circle, march and try to represent the characters from the song with movements.

Tune: “Jingle Bells”
unknown author

Fairy Tales,
Fairy Tales,
Read them everyday,
Oh what fun it is to hear,
How Goldilocks got away! Hey!

Once upon a time
In a land so far away,
A princess kissed a frog
Well that just made his day!

Far across the town,
Red Riding Hood took fright
She found a wolf in Granny’s bed
When she told her good night! Oh!

Fairy Tales! Fairy Tales!
Full of joy and laughter!
Do you know how this one ends?
Why, it’s Happily Ever After!

6. “What fairy tale am I talking about?” – riddles – teacher spreads picture cards with fairy tale characters on the carpet and reads riddles to the children. Children guess and point to the corresponding picture. Then, they divide the names of fairy tale characters into syllables.

I was going to my grandma in a very happy mood, then I met a Big Bad Wolf, so now you know, that I am… (Little Red Riding Hood)
I have seven friends with whom I have a crazy, forest life. I’m hiding from a bad queen and my name is … (Snow White).
We visited a gingerbread house with bad women in a scary wood. But we freed ourselves with some gold and now we are in an amazing mood. (Hansel and Gretel)
I catch a “Golden Fish” which promises to fulfill any wish. (Fisherman)
The poor girl, who wanted to go to a ball. Mice and a pumpkin helped her, and then on the stairs – she loses her slipper. Who is that? (Cinderella)
My lips are red and skin as white as a dove. I’m sleeping and wishing for my prince to love. (Sleeping Beaty)
Furry one with walking skills, he has shoes. He is very brave, do you know him? (Puss in Boots)
There were three of them who built houses, and two of them weren’t too solid. So the wolf could destroy it. (Three Little Pigs)

7. “Like in a fairy tale” – movement activity – children move freely around the room to the rhythm of ‘Fairy Tale’ song. When the music stops, children perform the actions mentioned by a teacher, e.g.: “Hansel and Gretel eat the roof of the gingerbread house”, “Little Red Riding Hood picks flowers up and puts them in the basket”, “The Big Bad Wolf watches Red Riding Hood from behind the tree”, “Cinderella dances at the ball”, “The wolf tries to blow away the pig’s house”, “Snow White dances with the dwarves”, etc. The activity is repeated 7-8 times.

8. “Fairy tale gymnastics” – a set of gymnastic exercises – children perform gymnastic exercises according to the teacher’s instructions.

“Get up dwarfs” – children – the “dwarfs” lie on the carpet with their eyes closed – they “sleep”; at the sound of the sleigh bells – they wake up (stand up) and run freely in different directions.
“Dwarf hat” – the teacher spreads cones at two ends of the room. Children are “dwarfs” and they line up on a train and put a gym bag – “cap” on their heads and try to walk to the target (the opposite cone) so that the bag does not fall. The teacher points out to the children that in this task it is not speed that counts, but accuracy.
“Hansel and Gretel jump over pebbles” – the teacher arranges “pebbles” on the carpet at such distances so that the children can jump from one another disc/hula-hoop/scarf. Children line up in a train in front of the first “pebble” and jump from “pebble” to “peble” with both feet, so as not to touch the carpet beyond the discs/hula-hoops/scarfs.
“Little Red Riding Hood’s Gymnastics” – firstly, children perform forward and backward arm circles (5 times each); then forward bends and stretches (7 times); and finally, 10 jumps.
“Pass on, little piggy…” – the teacher divides the children into two groups, e.g. by counting down to two. Children stand in two rows, in each row they stand a few steps apart from each other. The task of each group is to pass 10 bags from one end of the row to the other – children throw a bag to the next person in the row. The next bag can be passed only when the previous one reaches the end of the row.
“Goldfish jumps out of the water” – children – “fishes” lie down on the floor on their bellies with their arms along the torso. At the teacher’s password: “splash” – they raise their head and pull their chest up as high as possible; at the slogan: “into the water” – they lower their chest and head to the carpet. The activity is repeated 5 times.
“Cinderella at the ball” – the teacher distributes colorful handkerchiefs to children. Children dance with handkerchiefs to the rhythm of a song, e.g. “The Second Waltz”.
“The Princess falls asleep” – children comfortably lie down on the carpet and calm their breathing.

9. “Cake for a Fairy Tale Heroes” – art craft – children and a teacher sit on the carpet, where he/she explains the rules of the work. Teacher tells children that on the occasion of Tell a Fairy Tales Day, they will make fairy cakes for the fairy tale heroes they have met this week. They have to paint the inside of our hands (without the little finger) for any color we want, and then reflect it on a piece of paper. Then we have to wash our hands in the bathroom or with wet wipes. The “cake” – should be decorated. The reflection of the fingers will become candles and the middle part will be a cake. We decorate the art craft with colorful paint, and then with the marker – we add a plate and other decorations if it is necessary. After giving all instructions, the teacher invites the children to the tables. After finishing their work, the children clean up their stations.

10. “Going from the journey with fairy-plane” – an activity ending the complex theme – teacher informs children that it is time to return from the land of fairy tales and that they have to tell a spell to conjure the fairy plane up again:

Magic car, magic train,
We prefer going by plane.
Hocus Pocus fairy tower
Let’s just end our travel.
Thank you so much, fairy tales
For all amazing adventures.

Then, children, together with a teacher pretend the flight of an airplane with their arms spread out to the sides and “land” by squatting and sitting in a circle on the carpet.