Growing up I had an old fairy tale book that I loved to look at especially the illustrations. I realized we did not have any fairytale books around the house for my own young readers until we received this copy of Han’s Christens Fairy Tales.
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Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen is a great collection of your favorite classic fairy tales, including the Snow Queen (which inspired Frozen) and the Little Mermaid in case you have a Disney fan at your house.
M-Woww (4 years old) looked over the book and was drawn in by the colorful illustrations. She wanted to read Thumbelina first. I think the colorful illustrations is what drew her to the story.
This book also includes the following fairy tales,
The Emperors New Clothes
The Fir Tree
The Little Mermaid
The Nightingale
The Princess and the Pea
The Snow Queen
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Swineherd
Thumbelina
The Ugly Duckling
The Wild Swans
While we were looking at the book, I realized that while I recognized many of these stories, the fairy tales were brand new to my two young readers.
This book will be a great resource to come back as my young children grow older. I believe fairy tales are stories that you can reread and find more meaning each time you read it!
After reading Thumbelina, we had a discussion about what it would be like to live in the world from Thumbelina’s perspective. This discussion led to creative play with the STEAM challenge posted below.
CREATIVE STEAM CHALLENGE:
Build a house for Thumbelina using items found in nature.
Materials:
The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Thumbelina
Items Collected from Nature
Shallow Tray or Box
Play dough
Step 1: Collect items from nature. Go on a walk around the neighborhood or the backyard to discover interesting items from nature.
Step 2: Read the fairy tale Thumbelina.
Step 3: Challenge your child to use their nature collection to build a house for Thumbelina. Use the shallow tray or box to contain your child’s creation.
Below is an aerial view of M-Woww’s house design for Thumbelina. Each corner of the tray is a section of the house that includes a kitchen, bedroom, and of course…. a playground area.
In the kitchen area pictured below, the white rocks represent the stove and microwave.
M-Woww did use play dough to stand up pine needles to create mini trees. Play dough is not a nature found object, but it was her problem-solving solution to getting the trees to stand up.
In this corner is Thumbelina’s bed made out of leaves along with an overhead shelter of twigs and leaves.
Overall, this challenge required critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Plus, M-Woww was highly engaged creating her own house for Thumbelina.
Use your favorite fairy tale to inspire a creative challenge for your child. For more inspiration check out our Little Red Riding Hood Challenge.
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