Celebrating Tell A Fairy Tale Day

One of our amazing community partners is the Miami Public Library. Ms Judy, our fearless children's librarian, works with us every summer to encourage kids to read during their summer break. So, when I learned today was Tell a Fairy Tale Day, my first thoughts were of Ms Judy. She tells a story that can keep our kids captivated (and that, my friends, is no small feat). So, I thought we would celebrate by channeling our own inner Ms Judy and we're going to tell our own fairy tales.

We're setting up different stations and our rotations will hit each one.





Learning Center: Who's Prop is This? - We've used this game for lots of

activities here and the kids really get into it. I start my day by roaming about the Club and gathering a menagerie of items that can be used as props (and it makes my theatre heart so very happy). I try to make sure it's different items each time. Since today is all about fairy tales, I tried to play into the theme a bit more. I brought my Red Riding Cape (okay, so I know this isn't a common thing to have around the house, but again, I'm a theatre kid), a large plastic Easter egg (dragon egg!), a large crystal, a few pool noodles (they make nice swords), a fancy vase (that looks a lot like a genie lamp), a large sea shell, a few lima beans, a stuffed owl, etc. The idea is that you have the kids in small groups. They have 30 seconds to pick their starting props (they can switch out as they tell the story if they like) and then they have 2 minutes to present a fairy tale (or their fractured version of one) to the audience.

Gym: The Giant's Obstacle Course - Imagine you're Jack and you've just climbed the beanstalk (I show a short clip of Mickey and the Beanstalk for those kiddos who are unfamiliar with the concept). Just making your way across the room is a challenge. Our staff set up a massive obstacle course in the gym and we run it relay style. The first team to finish the course is the winner.

Table Top Games: Lego Challenge - Our kids love a good lego challenge and today we're incorporating Fairy Tales -  building Rapunzel's tower, the witch's gingerbread house, a trap for the Big Bad Wolf, etc.

The Studio: For the younger kids: Flying Dragon Craft - I found this great project online when I was looking for a way to use the mountain of extra toilet paper rolls I had saved for a Holidays Around the World project that didn't pan out like I had hoped. Take a look over at There's Just One Mommy for the breakdown of how to make these.

For the older kids: Fairy Garden building. We partnered with a local florist to create awesome fairy gardens. Each of our kids got a tea cup and got to plant a cute fairy garden with a mini fairy figure in it.

On the Big Screen: Fractured Fairy Tales - Our kids are young enough most of them have never seen the animated version of Rocky and Bullwinkle (let's face it, a lot of our staff have never seen it) so I created a playlist from YouTube with clips of lots of the Fractured Fairy Tale segments from the show. The kids love it and it brings back memories of childhood for me.

Here is a visual schedule of a sample day for us using the activities listed above. We combine our two older kid groups for special days because it makes rotations work better.

I hope you're able to use some of the ideas here for your own Fairy Tale Day. This theme works well with a Spirit Week line up (we use those for NYOI week, Spring Break, Boys and Girls Club Week, and Winter Break) or just for a fun day to break routine.