Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale, Play All About It!

With the holiday of Purim, now just behind us, came an influx of story telling, dressing up and dramatic play. We even dressed up to act out the story at home in a makeshift play castle so we could create our own photo megillah! So many of the stories we teach from the Torah feature common themes that children grapple with through play: strong emotions, characters acting heroically, characters acting villainous, crisis resolution and personal conflict. One could certainly argue that there is a level of extreme maturity and sometimes even darkness associated with this. The same could be stated about fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Many times as parents and educators, we wonder about how (and if) to expose young children to such things. Do we "water down" stories from the Torah? Do we shield children from classic fairy tales, poetry and literature? While I am not here to tell you the "right" way to go about it, I am a big believer in the power of child's play to work through strong emotions and fears and I do believe that literacy is a safe space to grapple with those as well. An article by Matt de la Pena in Time Magazine recently touched upon "Why We Shouldn't Shield Children From Darkness," and an older article from Psychology Today discusses "the Importance of Fairy Tales" in early childhood.

What I can say for sure is that S spent plenty of time over the past weeks intermittently playing the role of a king and Haman from the Purim story, repeatedly demanding that we bow down to him or he will send us away! Story telling and play acting are great ways for children to safely try on costumes and personality attributes they may not typically display! After Purim, I did a toy rotation in our play area and set out a basket of miniature flocked bears, dollhouse furniture and a wooden barn house. S's play took off! He even asked us to bring in some bigger toy bears so Y could play. And as we played, I began to think about the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. On the spot, I did some impromptu storytelling and from there, S became fascinated with playing out the fairy tale.

We headed to the library yesterday in the afternoon to check out a variety of versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Combined with a selection of toys to act out the story, a playful porridge sensory bin and a selection of themed songs and poems, we are set up to play about this classic tale. In playing about fairy tales, I focus more on storytelling and child-led play than in reading and structured activities as I do with my children's literature based story stretchers. Even though I am less directly involved, I recognize the learning that is also occurring through play about fairy tales, this one in particular! For sure, the story addresses social concepts of asking permission before touching others' belongings and respectfully handling those materials. It also gives over spacial and size concepts (as in GREAT, BIG, HUGE, middle-sized and teeny tiny). Literary concepts like sequencing and rich vocabulary opportunities also arise in this story.

Another benefit to playing about fairy tales is the opportunity to expose children to a vast collection of literature based upon the same story. While the main components of the story are the same in each book, every author and illustrator has their own spin on language, art and cultural aspects of the story. I even printed and laminated some paintings of scenes from the story that I found particularly lovely. Infusing a child's play space with art can give a sense of beauty and value to the area. And while we can directly expose children to art in structured activities and lessons, there is an appreciation for it that I believe is better developed through exposure and their own personal experience with it. I am mindful to strategically place artwork (both prints and their own) in areas where my children can easily see it and where it might inspire and spark their play.

I love supplementing our storytelling with themed songs and action rhymes. Music is a helpful memory booster and greatly supports children in recalling the sequence and events of stories. There is a great collection of fairy tale themed songs and rhymes available at Fairydust Teaching and on Pinterest as well. My two little guys are totally in love with this one:

Three Brown Bears

t.t.t.o.: Three Blind Mice

Three brown bears, three brown bears

See all their beds, see all their chairs

The mommy cooked in a big brown pot,

The daddy's porridge was much too hot

The baby bear always cried a lot

Three brown bears, three brown bears.

S is a big fan of reading books during breakfast or dinner and sometimes this is possible (we read a couple of great versions of the story this morning at breakfast), while other times it is too difficult to manage feeding Y and holding a book at the same time! Laminated songs to the rescue! Singing through some of our favorite Three Bears Themed songs and rhymes kept everyone occupied and engaged through dinnertime last night and I was even able to successfully wipe the mashed sweet potatoes off of the laminated pages that Y helped "decorate."

One of the most beloved play-along activities with this theme is our Bears' Porridge Sensory Bin, a taste-safe sensory bin that both S and Y can use with dried oats, cinnamon sticks and a collection of story appropriate dishes to go with it! We use these dried oats and cinnamon sticks especially just for sensory play and are careful to make sure hands are clean and dry before digging in so that they can be reused as long as possible.

Because fairy tales are stories we commonly tell again and again, they also inspire play themes to occur again and again. Children then have the opportunity to expand upon their play and therefore their learning as well. We are having a lot of fun playing all about The Three Bears here and I am already eager to introduce more fairy tale inspired play in the future. 

Three bears in three chairs

Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, three days old!

Until then....happy playing!