Sleeping Beauty: Educational Activities and Games for 2 to 5 Year Olds

Let's face it, kids love movies, but it's been proven that they should watch no more than 2 hours of TV a day. So why not combine their love of a movie and activities that will help them learn and grow? Following are suggestions for the movie Sleeping Beauty released in 1959. These activities would also work well for preschool classes and party games for this age group.

Watch the movie

Let your kids watch the show while you prepare the activities for the rest of the day or attend to other responsibilities.

Paper Bag Puppets

Help your child make puppets out of paper bags. Encourage them to make characters from the movie, such as one of the fairies, the king, the knight or Princess Aurora. Older children can use construction paper to cut out pieces to make clothes and hair for the puppet. Younger children can simply color on the paper bag.

Design a Princess Dress or Knight Outfit

Get out different colors of construction paper and draw a figure of a girl or boy on a piece of paper. Have your child cut out clothes for the figure. For girls you might want to suggest making a princess dress (just like the one the fairies make for Princess Aurora) and for boys you might want to suggest making a knight outfit (like the one Prince Phillip wears).

Make a Fairy Wand

Get three to four pipe cleaners in different colors. Wrap them together and let your child add some ribbon or other decorations. Pretend that you can change things into something else or make objects move and use your wands as you pretend.

Read a Book

Read a book with your child. Reading is one of the most educational activities you can do with your child and making it a fun experience will encourage them to keep reading. Pick books that you think will interest your child, ask them questions about the story and pictures or even have them act out a part of the story. There are many types of books that would go well with the movie Sleeping Beauty; a few suggestions are listed below.

• Sleeping Beauty by K.Y. Craft
• Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty!: An Interactive Book with Sounds by Jonathan Allen
• Usborne Sparkly Touchy-Feely Fairies (Sparkly Touchy Feely Board Books) by Fiona Watt, Stephen Cartwright, and Glen Bird
• One Little Lamb (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth (Awards)) by Elaine Greenstein