Following our study of Nursery Rhymes we moved into fairy tales. Fairy tales are great as they have many similarities. For example, there are good and evil characters, the number 3 is present in all of the stories and there is a repetitive nature to the stories which assists with retell. During our study, we focused on the story elements of character, setting, and events. We also discussed problem and solution for some of the stories. After reading a tale and discussing its story elements, the children had the opportunity to act it out. The props then became part of the dramatic play area where the children could continue to take on the role of the characters.
Math topics integrated into our Fairy Tale theme included sorting objects by size, measuring with nonstandard items (giant feet), an introduction to area, counting and shape identification. Students also continued to practice sequencing and story retell through craft projects. Fairy tales also lend themselves to several STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) activities which you will see below.
Students took on the roles of Goldilocks and the three bears in the dramatic play area where the three bears' home was set up.
Students could also retell the story using a small bear house and story props.
After reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff, we talked about different types of bridges with a focus on arch and beam bridges. The children and I attempted to build both types of bridges using toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls and strips of paper. We tested each bridge to see its strength by putting little people and animals on top. When our arch bridge sank, the children suggested using blocks and additional paper. We tried out each of these ideas. Then the children were sent to work on their own bridges. Some worked alone and others with a partner. We then tested each of their bridges to see which was the strongest. One bridge held 14 little people!
I love this sequence of pictures because you can see how excited the students got as I add more and more little people and they saw the strength of their bridge.
Our next fairy tale was The Three Little Pigs. Again, the students acted out the story for their peers and then we moved the "houses" to the dramatic play area for further exploration.
The students sequenced the story of the three pigs through a craft project where they ordered the houses and used different materials to build a straw, stick and brick house on paper.
The children were one again asked to engage in a STEM project. The challenge this time was to create a house that the Big Bad Wolf (a fan) could not blow over. Several materials were available, such as popsicle sticks, straws, playdoh, cardboard, Legos, glue and tape. As hoped, several of the children realized that their first house would not stand up, they had to make adjustments and possibly use different materials to improve their house before facing the wolf. Some houses did blow over, but this gave us the opportunity to talk about what makes a structure strong and what materials were best.
Our final fairy tale was Jack and the Beanstalk. Below you will see several children acting out the scenes. We even had our very own growing beanstalk which the children enjoyed chopping down.
After our retell, the children each planted their own bean seed.
So much creativity surfaces when we are in a new space. Here are the children at the library. You can see that our old Lego table was a big hit here.
Finally, a few shots from Fancy Day!
