Preschool: Fairy Tales {Week 2}

And here are the details for each activity:

 Retelling Goldilocks & the 3 Bears:

If you followed along last week, then you know that every day of our Fairy Tales theme we are focusing on a new fairy tale. We began each day reading one version of the story, making our own little simple story book, then retelling the story with puppets.  This week we began with Goldilocks & the 3 Bears.

  Rhyme and Color Bear:

This week we focused on rhyme so we started with this color by code activity. Madelynn identified the pictures on the left side of the page, then searched the picture on the right for words that rhymed. Then she followed the directions to make each spot the correct color.  

This week we switched up our math focus and worked on sorting. For our first sorting activity, Madelynn sorted bowls, chairs and beds into groups by size for each of the three bears. Baby bear got all of the small items, Mama medium, and Papa large just like in the story.

 Goldilocks Sensory Bin:

In this bin: oats, silicone cupcake liners, mini chairs, mini beds, goldilocks finger puppets, measuring spoons

 Retelling the Princess and the Pea:

Our next story was the Princess and the Pea. After reading, Madelynn completed her simple storybook with cut and paste characters, tracing words from the story, and coloring each part.  After reviewing the main events in the story we used our puppets to retell the story.

Next, for more letter practice we used our dot stampers. We started out stamping inside the letter to make a K. Then Madelynn had to find the upper and lowercase k’s in the king, stamp them and make the “K” sound each time. Then she stamped the other letters different colors and tried to make the sounds for each one. 

For our math activity we did more sorting by size, this time with a more hands on approach.  I filled a tray with pom pom “peas” of varying sizes.  Then I labeled 3 cups for Madelynn to use for sorting.  She loves holding, pretending with, and squishing little craft pom poms in sensory bins so this was a fun way to incorporate them into our sorting.

 Princess and the Pea Sensory Bin:

In this bin: split peas, toy bed, felt “mattresses,” prince and princess

 Retelling Little Red Riding Hood:

Our next story was the Little Red Riding Hood. After reading, Madelynn completed her simple storybook with cut and paste characters, tracing words from the story, and coloring each part.  After reviewing the main events in the story we used our puppets to retell the story.

For some hands on rhyming fun, we played this rhyming in the forest memory match.  I printed matching pairs of rhyming words, then used double stick tape to add them to the bottom of small trees.  Then I placed the trees in our sensory bin filled with peas.  Madelynn and I took turns flipping over trees, just as you would flip cards in memory, trying to make rhyming pairs

 Little Red’s Basket Sort:

For our next sorting activity we focused on sorting by color.  I set up baskets with colored labels on each one. Then I gave Madelynn a bin full of different colored play food and filled each basket with the correct color food to take to Grandma’s house.

 Little Red in the Woods:

This was pretty much the easiest art project ever, Madelynn may have made about 10 of them 🙂 For this project Madelynn used brown tempera paint to make a forest. All she needed to do was paint vertical lines across the page, but for some reason she really loved making them so she created lots of forest backgrounds.  Then I cut out small Little Red and Wolf characters for her.  After the paint dried, she glued them to her forest scene. You could also try painting on dark blue paper to give the scene a spooky nighttime feel, or add dots of white for a winter touch.

  Retelling Hansel and Gretel:

Our next story was Hansel and Gretel. After reading, Madelynn completed her simple storybook with cut and paste characters, tracing words from the story, and coloring each part.  After reviewing the main events in the story we used our puppets to retell the story.

 Crown Name Craft:

For this week’s name craft we created a colorful crown.  First Madelynn cut the crown pieces out. Then she wrote the letters in her name on each triangle. After she finished writing, she glued the pieces together in order to spell her name. She finished decorating her crown using  dot stampers.  Then I wrapped the crown around her her to measure for size and stapled it together for her.

Since Hansel and Gretel found a candy house, we used different sized and colored candy to practice sorting in more that one way.  Madelynn used the same candy cards to first sort by size, then she sorted again by color.

 Exploring Candy:

What could be more fun than a science experiment with candy.  For this science exploration activity, I set out a tray with lots of different types of candy with varying textures and consistencies (M&Ms, starburst, chocolate bars, cotton candy, etc.) I also set out 3 cups with water, vinegar, and seltzer and eye droppers. Madelynn loved exploring the properties of each type of candy by mixing, smooshing…and tasting of course!

  Retelling Little Red Riding Hood:

Our last story was The Three Little Pigs. After reading, Madelynn completed her simple storybook with cut and paste characters, tracing words from the story, and coloring each part.  After reviewing the main events in the story we used our puppets to retell the story.

   Fairy Tale Journal Writing:

For our journal this week Madelynn chose to draw and label a house she would like to build. She decided to a brick house.  After drawing I asked her what she wanted to write about her picture. She said, “I built a brick house.” So I drew 5 lines, then we worked on writing the sounds together. She wrote “i b A Bk H.” 

 Three Little Pigs Logic Game:

I found this amazing 3 little pigs game a while back and knew I wanted to include it in our Fairy Tale Plans. The game has 48 challenges included. In each challenge Madelynn had to look at the picture to place the pigs and wolf in the correct spot, then add the house pieces so that all the pigs were in houses and the wolf was left outside.  Such a fun way to practice spatial awareness and problem solving skills.

Our final project was making houses for the 3 little pigs.  To make these little houses we started with 3 clear cups, straw (raffia), sticks (real ones from outside), and bricks (small red foam rectangles).  I helped Madelynn glue the materials to each cup using low temp. hot glue. I chose to use hot glue so that the pieces would stay because I wanted Madelynn to be able to pretend and play with her houses.  This was a nice lesson in being careful and patient when placing the pieces as well so that she didn’t get burned.  To finish off each house i gave madelynn a semi circle of black paper to roll and tape into a roof.

Want all of this week’s printables and plans?  You can grab them here: