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Home / Early Learning / Sensory / A Fairy Tale Activity with Dragon Imaginative Play

A Fairy Tale Activity with Dragon Imaginative Play

Shared by Mary Catherine 2 Comments

This fairy tale activity will bring dragons to life in your preschool classroom! I love thinking of different preschool themes, and science fiction and fantasy are some of my favorite realms to work in.  Sharing my love for dragons was one of the reasons I was excited to plan for a recent fairy tale theme!  🙂  I started with a simple fairy tale activity involving a dragon small world.  I’m not sure I can call it “small”, as the children expanded the play even more than I thought they would!

Children enjoyed playing with dragons in this easy fairy tale activity

Table of Contents

  • Fiery dragon fun with a fairy tale activity
  • Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Fiery dragon fun with a fairy tale activity

This sensory activity only requires a few key materials. Here’s what I used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

  • White navy beans
  • Colorful glass gems
  • Toy dragons
  • Variety of small toys

The dragon world was created very simply.  I used a base of white navy beans, then added colorful glass gems.  Once the base of the small world was set up, I added the toy dragons.  Ever since our pet unit, the kiddos have shown an increased interest in the variety of small toys I have.  So I’m making sure to include them in activities when possible!

A fun fairy tale activity with dragons, gems, and beans.

In my mind, the beans represented clouds and the gems were dragon “treasure”.  I didn’t tell the children my reasoning, though.  I wanted to see what they did with the materials.  As always, they surprised me by taking this little fairy tale activity to the next level! 

This fairy tale activity led to hours of imaginative play with dragons.
Even the feathers from our nature table were brought into this small world!

The dragon world was out in the classroom for about a week and a half.  During the first day, the kids played within the realm of the sensory bins.  They brought the knights in and created epic battles between the dragons and the knights.  There were also collections of “dragon coins” set aside for the queen dragon, while the other dragons flew all around.

A fairy tale activity with dragons, knights, gems, and beans!
Playing with the beans was just as fun as playing with the dragons!

The next day, the dragon imaginative play got a lot bigger!  The children noticed small, clear marbles mixed in with the glass gems and beans.  A few of the kiddos immediately decided that those marbles were “very important dragon eggs”.  They began digging through the bins and collecting all of the “eggs”.  The hutch in our home center was turned into a dragon cave where all of the eggs were stored.  The queen and some of her buds protected the eggs together.

A queen dragon guards her

From there, the children added another table to the dragon world.  By the time we had to put away this little fairy tale activity, it had spread out to include our sensory bins, our home center, the math center, and part of the block center!  In each of those areas, the children were completely engaged.  Yes, it was a little messy at times — those glass gems were all over the place (including sections of the floor).  However, the kiddos were actively using, creating, moving, and talking about their dragon story.  Even those gems on the floor were being used by the children!

Lots of sensory play took place during this fairy tale activity

Just some of the learning that took place:

  • Imagination and creativity as they made up the stories for the small world
  • Math when they counted and sorted the gems
  • Language skills were everywhere as the kiddos discussed the plans and acted out their stories
  • Fine motor skills got a workout manipulating the knights, dragons, beans, and gems
  • Literacy was touched on when the students retold some of the fairy tales we’d read

Do you and your children have a favorite fairy tale activity? I’d love to hear about them, if so!

If you’re looking for more fairy tale ideas, please stop by my Fairy Tales Pinterest board.

Follow Mary Catherine @ Fun-A-Day!’s board {Theme} Fairy Tales on Pinterest.

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week, all while balancing other teaching responsibilities and a personal life, can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!

Preschool Teacher 101 is excited to share with you some amazing lesson plans, activity packs, and other resources made specifically for preschool. We offer a wide variety of themes that are frequently used in preschool classrooms as well as some less common (but super interesting) themes. Click on the image below to learn more about some of our fairy tale-themed resources!

Fairy Tales Lesson Plans
Little Red Riding Hood Lesson Plan cover.
Little Red Riding Hood Lesson Plans
Jack & The Beanstalk Lesson Plans cover page.
Jack & The Beanstalk Lesson Plans
3 Little Pigs lesson plan preschool resource cover.
3 Little Pigs Lesson Plans

Join The Pack from Preschool Teacher 101 today for exclusive access to our amazing products. And we even have three different membership options to suit your needs!

Filed Under: Early Learning, Sensory Tagged With: Fairy Tales, Pretend Play

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  1. Sandi says

    February 24, 2014 at 1:39 am

    Love how the gems look against the white beens. Where did you get your dragons – I have some Toob dragons, but they are just not quite big enough.

    Reply
  2. Jennifer | The Deliberate Mom says

    February 24, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    This is awesome! I love the addition of the colourful glass beads too. What a magical and mystical play space.

    Wishing you a lovely day.
    xoxo

    Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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