Princess and the Pea

This week we looked at different version of The Princess and the Pea. 

Outline:

Opening Song: Put Your Hands Up High

Opening Rhyme

Story: The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora

Song: Princess and the Pea
Tune: Mary Had a Little Lamb

1. The prince needed to wed a princess
Wed a princess, wed a princess
The prince needed to wed a princess
A real and true princess

2. But how could he find his princess
Find his princess, find his princess
How could he find his princess
A princess real and true?

3. One day a princess got lost in a storm
Lost in a storm, lost in a storm
One day a princess got lost in a storm
And asked for a place to sleep

4. The Queen tested her with a pea
With a pea, with a pea
The Queen tested her with a pea
Under 20 mattresses

5. The princess could not sleep a wink
Sleep a wink, sleep a wink
The princess could not sleep a wink
Because of that hard pea

Source: Me

Flannel Board: Five Comfy Mattresses

Five comfy mattresses under a sleeping princess
But the top one was too knobby, she found a tree
Four comfy mattresses under a sleeping princess
But the top one was too bumpy, she found a key
Three comfy mattresses under a sleeping princess
But the top one was too scratchy, she found a flea
Two comfy mattresses under a sleeping princess
But the top one was too buzzy, she found a bee
One comfy mattress under a sleeping princess
But it was too lumpy, she found a pea
So she ate the pea and fell asleep

Source: The Voices Inside My Headphones

Story: The Real Princess: A Mathemagical Tale by Brenda Williams

Activity: Find the pea under the pillow

Craft: Princess and the pea art project

Story: Princess Pigtoria and the Pea by Pamela Duncan Edwards

Goodbye Song

How it actually went: 

I love the illustrations in Rachel Isadora's version of The Princess and the Pea. Since the text remains true to the traditional tale, I chose this one for my first story of the night. 

The week before, the children were quite vocal in their objection to singing "The Fairy Tale Song" AGAIN, so I promised them that I would find something different next week. Well, I couldn't find anything that I liked for the Princess and the Pea, so I wrote my own. Feel free to use it if you like it. 

I found the flannel board at the link above. You may notice that I altered mine a bit. I wanted mine to rhyme better than the original text that I found. 

For the most part, the kids seemed to enjoy The Real Princess. They counted along some of the time. One of my girls had an interesting objection. She did not like that the princes in the story were depicted with eyelashes. LOL I invited her to look at the boys in the room and notice that they do, in fact, have eyelashes. 

For the "pea under the pillow" activity I placed several pillows and blankets ("mattresses") on the ground and placed a marble "pea" under a few of them. Then I gave the kids a sheet labeled with mattresses 1-6 and asked them to check yes or no depending on if they thought there was a pea underneath or not. 

The worksheet I created so the kids could record their answers. 

They did fairly well with their guesses, but there were some where they just could not tell. Another problem that I had was that I had 6 kids and 6 mattresses. Well, rather than have them stand in line and have several waiting as the kids made their way down in order, I had them all sit at the same time and rotate. So some of the children were confused about which mattress they were actually sitting on (and yes, they were labeled). 

For our craft project I was inspired by pictures from Pinterest. I gave the kids paper in all different colors and patterns and invited them to paper-collage a bed piled high with mattresses. I also provided a label for each of the kids that read "_____ put ___ mattresses on the bed, but the princess could still feel the pea." This provided a little bit of math, and was also inspired by pictures on Pinterest. 

The children had so much fun with their art projects that we didn't have time for our final story. 

I'm sorry I don't have more pictures this week. I forgot my phone at home that day. 

So what are your thoughts? Comments? Questions?

*Disclaimer* I post links to Amazon, but am not an affiliate. I do not receive any compensation for any sales which may result. 

Emperor's New Clothes

My co-worker is the one to thank for suggesting pairing optical illusions with The Emperor's New Clothes. 

Outline:

Opening song: Put your hands up high 

Opening rhyme: Hands go up 

Story: The Emperor's New Clothes by Karen Wallace and Francois Hall 

Song: Fairy Tale Song 

Tune: Jingle Bells 

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! 

Read them every day! 

Oh what fun it is to hear 

How Goldilocks got away! 

Fairy Tales! Fairy Tales! 

Full of joy and laughter 

Do you know how this one ends? 

Why it's happily ever after! 

Source: First Grade W.O.W.

Song: Hat Song 

On my head, I wear my hat  

It is such a silly hat  

that my head wiggle waggles to and fro  

Where else can my silly hat go?  

Place hat on other body parts and sing the song again. 

Source: Jbrary

Story: The Emperor's Old Clothes by Kathryn Lasky 

Activity: Optical illusions

Craft time: Thaumatropes and/or Fashion clothes for the emperor 

Final Story: Dinosaur's New Clothes by Diane Goode

Goodbye Song 

How it actually went: 

The stories went over well. Not surprisingly, the kids giggled at the sight of a naked or underwear-clad emperor. In The Emperor's Old Clothes, even though the focus is not on the emperor, he does make an appearance. The children were convinced that the emperor's chubby hip, was his butt and freaked out, cackling hysterically. Nothing I could say would convince them otherwise. 

I talked with the children a little bit about optical illusions. I printed a few examples out, and taped them to the wall. Let me tell you, if you haven't tried using optical illusions with kids, do it. Their minds were blown. I loved watching their reactions to the pictures. One of the pictures was designed to look as though the black dot in the center was growing. I could not get the children to believe me when I told them it wasn't actually growing. 

The thaumatropes were a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing the pictures that the kids came up with. The children also had the option of creating clothes for the emperor. Some kids chose just one of the activities. Others did both. 

Have you used optical illusions in your storytimes? How did the children react?


*Disclaimer* I link to Amazon, but am not an affiliate. I receive no compensation for any sales which may result. 

Little Red Riding Hood

I struggled a little bit with which STEAM activity I wanted to introduce with Little Red Riding Hood. As often happens, Pinterest came to the rescue when I saw that some teachers and librarians tie in zip line activities with this one. 

Outline:

Hello Song: Put Your Hands Up High

Opening Rhyme: Hands Go Up

Story: Peek Inside a Fairy Tale Little Red Riding Hood retold by Anna Milbourne

Song: Fairy Tale Song
Tune: Jingle Bells

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!
Read them every day!
Oh what fun it is to hear
How Goldilocks got away!

Fairy Tales! Fairy Tales!
Full of joy and laughter
Do you know how this one ends?
Why it's happily ever after!

Source: First Grade W.O.W.

Song: Little Red Riding Hood
Tune: There Was a Princess Long Ago (London Bridges Falling Down)

Oh little Red Riding Hood, Riding Hood, Riding Hood,
Oh little Red Riding Hood went into the woods.

Off to visit her poor Granny, her poor Granny, her poor Granny,
Off to visit her poor Granny who was sick.

She didn’t see the Big Bad Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf,
She didn’t see the Big Bad Wolf watching her!

The wolf wanted to eat her up, to eat her up, to eat her up,
The wolf wanted to eat her up, Big bad Wolf!

The woodcutter he saved them, saved them, saved them,
The woodcutter he saved them, Thank Goodness!

That was the end of the Big bad Wolf, the Big bad Wolf, the Big bad Wolf,
That was the end of the Big bad Wolf, good riddance!!

Source: Let's Play Music

Story: Pretty Salma by Niki Daly

Game: Little Red Riding Hood Puzzle Game

Craft/Activity: Engineer a path / zip line activity

Final Story: Little Red's Riding 'Hood by Peter Stein

Goodbye Song

How it actually went: 

Even though board book/lift the flap/peek inside books are typically marketed to toddlers and preschoolers, I love the Peek Inside books from Usborne, so I decided to use this one for my traditional version. My kids had a lot of fun with the flaps and being able to see the wolf hiding from one page to the next. 

Pretty Salma is an African version of the story with Mr. Dog taking on the role of the Big Bad Wolf. I really like that in this version, Pretty Salma figures out that her grandmother is in danger and works with her grandfather and others to save her. 

The Little Red Riding Hood song was a new one for all of us. The site that I found the song on (linked above) was helpful enough to have a video with the tune from "There was a Princess Long Ago". It sounded similar enough to "London Bridges" to me that that is pretty much how I sang it. 

I ordered the puzzle game off Amazon because it looked like a lot of fun, and I was curious about it. I also like that you can vary the difficulty depending on who's playing. It's a 1-player game, but we worked on it as a team. Admittedly that can be a challenge when one of your teammates is only 4 and would rather take the pieces and engage in some dramatic play than actually solve the puzzle. 

Originally, when I planned my Little Red Riding Hood storytime, I created a map, that I was going to have the kids use to create a new route through the forest. Once I decided to switch it up to a zip line, I used the same map as the base. 

In creating the sample, I quickly discovered that the paper was too flimsy to hold the zip line. I had to tape the map down to large pieces of cardboard. I gave the kids tp rolls and craft sticks for each end of the zip line, with fishing line to string between the two. I used fishing line and bottle caps, to create baskets to send from Red to Granny. The final material needed was paper clips. 

The kids had fun, as they usually do. I left it up to their imaginations whether Red was just sending supplies via zip line, or if she was riding in the basket all the way to Granny's house. The children figured out pretty well on their own, that those who had a stronger angle wound up with a faster ride than those who with less of a height difference in point A and point B. 

We finished off with a transportation themed version of Little Red. It's really cute and definitely a different take on the whole fractured fairy tale thing. 

Now it's your turn. Have you tried a zip line project before? What materials did you use?

*Disclaimer* I am not an Amazon affiliate, so even though I include links to Amazon, I do not receive any compensation for any sales which may result. I am an independent consultant with Usborne Books & More, so I do get a commission from orders placed through my Usborne Books & More website. 

Rapunzel

When I decided to do a Rapunzel storytime, I went back and forth over which STEAM project to do with it. Rapunzel provides a lot of options. I saw suggestions for zip lines, pulleys, or marble runs. In the end I went with catapults. The idea behind it was that we were catapulting supplies up to Rapunzel to aid in her escape. 

Outline:

Opening Song: Put your hands up high

Opening Rhyme: Hands Go Up

Story: "Rapunzel: A German Fairy Tale" in Rapunzel Stories Around the World by Cari Meister

Song: Fairy Tale Song
Tune: Jingle Bells

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!
Read them every day!
Oh what fun it is to hear
How Goldilocks got away!

Fairy Tales! Fairy Tales!
Full of joy and laughter
Do you know how this one ends?
Why it's happily ever after!

Source: First Grade W.O.W.

Song: Rapunzel's Hair is Falling Down
Tune: London Bridge is Falling Down

Rapunzel's hair is falling down
Falling down, falling down,
Rapunzel's hair is falling down
My fair lady

Madame Gothel locked her up,
Locked her up, locked her up,
Madame Gothel locked her up
My fair lady

Rapunzel will escape the tower,
Escape the tower, escape the tower,
Rapunzel will escape the tower
Happ'ly ever after!

Source: Me

Story: Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox

Motion Activity: Action Dice with Rapunzel Song from YouTube

Final Story: How the Library (Not the Prince) Saved Rapunzel by Wendy Meddour

Activity: Catapults

Goodbye song

How it actually went: 

I structured this one a little differently because I knew the kids were going to have so much shooting their catapults that they wouldn't want to come back together for our final story. So this week, we finished all of our stories and songs before beginning our project. 

Falling for Rapunzel was a huge hit that had the children laughing hysterically. When it came time to play music with our action dice, I could not find the Rapunzel song that I had previously found on YouTube, so I wound up using a cd that I keep on hand for storytimes. 

For the catapults I modified the design I learned from the Heathers at STEM in Libraries. I had the pleasure of hearing them speak at the ILA conference in 2015, so I still had the catapult project from their presentation. Instead of using a plastic spoon, I hot-glued plastic bottle tops to popsicle sticks. I had a bunch of the tops on hand and I had seen it done this way. As it turns out, I should have stuck with the plastic spoons. The hot glue kept coming loose and the tops would fall off. Ah well, live and learn. At least I had plenty of replacements available. 

I made some targets for the kids to shoot at. Since the idea was that we were catapulting supplies up to Rapunzel, I made a tower out of an old cardboard tube. I also made a smaller one out of a cardboard box. Then, just for the heck of it, I set several small buckets out for the kids to aim for also. The kids had absolutely no trouble spending a half hour building and shooting their catapults. 

Have you built catapults with your kids before? Which design did you use? 

*Disclaimer* I am not an Amazon affiliate and do not receive any compensation from any sales which may result from the links above.