Fairy Tales Activities for Preschool and Fairy Tales Theme

Preschoolers love fairy tales activities and will be highly engaged in the learning process if you have a fairy tales theme week in your home. Reading the traditional fairy tales gives young children the chance to explore fantastical ideas and develop a powerful imagination. This is a list of fairy tale activities preschool kids will love.

Why Preschoolers Love These Stories

These traditional stories are so unreal that it is easy for kids to grasp the concept of fiction. Most likely, one of these spectacular tales will be the first time your child is transported to a new world through the power of the story.  

Fairy Tale Basics.

We read these magical stories to our kids in order to inspire them to do the right thing, to have hope, and to make wise choices. We also read the stories to our kids so they understand cultural references, quotes, and colloquialisms coming from the original writings. It’s a shared common experience handed down through many generations.

What is a fairy tale?

A fairy tale is a story set “once upon a time” and is usually so far removed from reality it is unbelievable. Common ones include Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Hansel, and Gretel, just to name a few. These types of stories are such an intrinsic part of nearly every culture in the world. In fact, people study and ponder and develop theories as to why stories on every continent of the world have such similar elements.

Fairy Tale Elements

There is no specific requirement or set of elements that make a story into a fairy tale. However, we do have certain expectations or a series of common elements found in most fairytales.

What are the elements of a fairy tale?

Every traditional fairy tale has a story involving fanciful characters (fairies, trolls, royalty, something outside of normal) and most fairy tales include some form of enchantment or magic such as spells, talking animals, witches, fairy godmothers, or a potion. Most have clearly defined good-versus-evil. The unfolding of the plot is often hard to believe.

Very often, the stories will have a moral or lesson learned as a result of the story. Through Hansel and Gretel for instance, children learn about the harm of greed. All of Aesop’s Fables, which are one of the earliest examples of these tales, have some kind of moral to the story.

Don’t forget to grab our Fairy-tale Gnomes Counting Book below.

Fun Fairy Tales Activities Preschool Kids will Love

Pick a few of these activities to enjoy with your child or children throughout the fairy tales theme.

How to Make a Fairy Tale Castle

You can make a really fun castle just by throwing sheets over your dining room table! Since kids will be using imagination, it doesn’t need to be fancy to be fun for hours. If you want to get fancier, find a large box to paint or color and work together to make a castle from that. Appliance stores will often have huge boxes you can pick up for free. A good box castle could keep your child’s interest for days.

How to Make Fairy Tale Costumes

Costumes help kids role-play and pretend to be someone they are not. This teaches kids empathy and helps them explore different lifestyles, personalities, and character traits through the safety net of play. Put together simple costumes with paper crowns, magical wands, toy swords, and long flowy dresses. Old prom dresses work great! Dress-up is one of my favorite fairy tales activities because it helps engage children in the art of storytelling or re-telling of the stories they’ve heard. This is a valuable exercise and builds language and communication skills in a powerful way.

Watch The Movie

Although I firmly believe in reading the book first in every case, towards the end of the week you could pick one or more of the classic movies to enjoy together as your theme-end celebration. Here are a few of my favorites.

Cinderella. The animated classic.

Beauty and the Beast. Also the original animated movie version.

Ella Enchanted. A brilliant remake of Cinderella. The book is fabulous as well. 

Tangled. A retelling of Rapunzel.

The Little Mermaid. The original.

Make Fancy Foods

Celebrate the theme with special foods to remember the story. Try one of these recipes. 
These are just a few of the fairy tales activities you could do to have an amazing fairy tales theme week in your homeschool or classroom.

How to Read Fairy Tales to Children

When you read one of these traditional stories to your child, it is a good idea to use a picture book with beautiful illustrations that bring the story to life. Start by reading the story through and just enjoying it as it unfolds. If you can read with different voices, don’t feel shy about it! Kids love voices even when we aren’t really very good at it. After you’ve read the story, just chat about it for a little bit. Talk about the life lesson or moral of the story and ask leading questions.

Favorite Fairy Tale Books

The best books to read to preschoolers will have beautiful, enticing illustrations to help them picture the story in their heads. If you can pick up these books from the library or grab one or two on Amazon, reading is one of our favorite fairy tales activities.

• The Three Little Javelinas by Susan Lowell. A retelling of the classic Three Little Pigs, with a twist. 
• The Three Pigs by David Wiesner. Wordless.
• The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, retold.
• Red by Jed Alexander. A delightful and wordless retelling of the classic Little Red Riding Hood.
• Little Red Riding Hood illustrated by Ed Bryan. 
• Sleeping Beauty by Cynthia Rylant.
• Jack and the Beanstalk illustrated by Ed Bryan. 
• The Princess and The Pea by Rachel Isadora.
• Hansel and Gretel by Cynthia Rylant.

Creating a Fairy Tales Theme for Preschool

You can create a wonderful theme week for your child or family just by focusing on these fantastical stories. Read a new story each day and add a song or craft to go along with it. Look for ways to teach math or other subjects with the story of the day. For instance, you could use our Fairy-tale Gnomes Counting Book for your preschooler, or our Fairy-Tale Gnomes Writing Prompts for your elementary and middle school students.

Download your Fairy Tale Gnomes Counting Book today!

Counting is a basic math skill that all children need to learn, so why not make it fun! Whether you’ve created a fairy tale themed week or your child just loves using their imagination, our Fairy Tale Gnomes Counting Book is the perfect counting supplement to your homeschool activities! Our counting books will help your child learn counting to twenty, recognizing numbers and number words, recognize sets under ten, and writing the numbers 1 – 10. Included in our Fairy Tale Gnomes Counting Book, you’ll find themed:

• Counting Pages 1-20, with a place to practice writing the number.
• Ten-Square Pages for Numbers 1-20, asking your child to color the appropriate number of squares for each number (or use chart stickers.)
• Counting Activity for numbers 1-10, without the number provided, where your child needs to count and come up with the correct number.
• Ten Writing Practice Pages for Numbers 1-10.

To download the Fairy Tale Gnomes Counting Book, simply add it to your cart and then checkout. **Upon checkout, you will be added to my Weekly Newsletter list.**