Fairy Tales!

The Plan

Books

The Foggy Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt
Over at the Castle by Boni Ashburn
The Sunflower Sword by Mark Sperring and Miriam Latimer
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Rachel Isadora

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “Five Knights In Shining Armor”
Five knights in shining armor, fearless and brave,
Went dragon hunting deep in a cave
The dragon started breathing fire,
The knights’ knees were all aquiver,
So one little knight went off to the river!

Song: “Curtsy Like a Princess” (Skip to My Lou)
Curtsy like a princess just like so
Curtsy like a princess just like so
Curtsy like a princess just like so
Curtsy like a princess!
(Bow like a prince, juggle like a jester, fly like a fairy, roar like a dragon)
Credit: Story Time Secrets

Puppets: “Here Is…”
Here is the knight with his feathered cap (take off hat, bow)
Here are his boots which go tap, tap, tap (tap feet)
Here is the dragon, listen to him roar (roar)
Here are his wings to help him soar (soar)
Here is the princess with her golden crown (four fingers over head)
Here is her lovely blue ball gown (curtsy)
Adapted from: Hummingbird Educational Resources

Song: “There Was a Princess” (repeat every line twice)
There was a princess long ago, long ago, long ago (curtsy)
And she lived in a big high tower, big high tower, big high tower (hands above head in triangle)
A wicked fairy cast a spell, cast a spell, cast a spell (wiggle fingers, cackle)
The princess slept for a hundred years, a hundred years, a hundred years (head on hands)
A great big forest grew around, grew around, grew around (spin)
A handsome prince came riding by, riding by, riding by (gallop)
He took his sword and cut the trees, cut the trees, cut the trees (make chopping motions)
He woke the princess with a kiss, with a kiss, with a kiss (blow kisses)
And everybody is happy now, happy now, happy now! (shoot “hooray!”)
Modified from Perpetual Preschool (I know I got the words from there, but I watched several YouTube videos to learn the song and wound up mashing some of the versions together.)

Craft

I bought the crowns from Oriental Trading and we used whatever foam stickers were around to decorate them. The squares were left-overs from an Earth Day program and the stars were left-overs from this summer. We also had letters so the kids could put their names on their crowns.

How It Went

This storytime skewed WAY older than I anticipated — right around the eight/nine year old mark (which is out of the suggested age range, but I had so many older siblings attend with their younger ones). Basically it meant that I had some very enthusiastic kids who sang and participated and I had some who didn’t. Somehow this still managed to work. All of the kids were very good listeners during the stories. Their favorite books were “The Sunflower Sword” and “The Foggy Foggy Forest.”