Fairy Garden Small World Play

Hi there, Rainy Day Mum readers!  I’m Mary Catherine, and I write about fun, meaningful learning over at Fun-A-Day. Today I’d love to share a DIY fairy garden inspired by David Shannon’s Alice the Fairy.  Shannon’s whimsical story centers on Alice, a self-described “temporary fairy”.

Since Alice the Fairy is all about make-believe and imagination, I thought some imaginative play was in order!

We have included links to the products and books used in this activity. If you buy from these links we may earn a small commission.

How to create your own Fairy Garden

I placed some potting soil in a sensory table, then gathered a variety of other materials for the children to use:

• Pieces of wood
• Colorful glass gems
• Safari Ltd. Fairy toob
• River rocks (but any rocks would do)
• Pinecones
• Plastic flowers

The children immediately jumped into putting the fairy garden together!  The small bits of wood were placed out first, followed by the rocks.  From there, the children worked together adding gems, pinecones, and flowers to create a place for fairies to play.  Once they were satisfied with the fairy small world, they jumped right into creating stories about the fairies.

I loved watching the kids work together to create this small world for the fairies!  Everyone was involved at one point or another, and they collectively played there for over an hour!  Best of all, though, was listening to what they had to say:

• “The winter fairies need blue jewels.”
• “Fairies like finding treasure. They put it in little boxes to keep it.”
• “This pinecone is for fairies to fly into and have a kitchen area.”
• “Her’s working in a log trying to find her little sister.”
• “I found some eggs here! They turned into sugar bugs!”
• “They’re playing hide and seek in the flowers!”

Have you ever created a DIY fairy garden with your children or students?  What different materials did you use?

If you’re looking for more fairy tale activities, you might like:

• Sparkly Royal Name Activity
• Bejeweled Princess Slime
• Dragon Pretend Play
• Preschool Science Fun with Ice Castles
• Cardboard Castles

Mary Catherine is mama to an incredibly curious 7-year old, teacher to a great group of preschool kiddos, and the force behind Fun-A-Day!  She’s passionate about early childhood education and meaningful, fun learning experiences.  You can keep up with Mary Catherine on Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+.