Paper Fairy Garden and Writing Booklet

Our lovely neighbours gave us a small yogurt container as inspiration and we designed a paper fairy garden around it that you might use for your homeschooling now too.  Along with that, we created a writing booklet where children could record a narrative to go along with their small world fairy garden play.   We hope you find these free templates handy for both play and creating imaginative stories around it! 

Materials

• Box Lid
• Fairy Garden (coloured in):  mushroom bush and tree colour
• Fairy Garden (colour yourself): mushroom bush and tree
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Cardboard Tubes (toilet paper/ paper towel rolls)
• Cardstock
• Fairy Wings fairy wings

Writing Booklet

• Story planning sheet: story planner
• Mushroom booklet (coloured in): Mushroom Colour writing book
• Mushroom booklet  (colour yourself): Mushroom writing book

We always find these items useful too:

Directions

All of the components for the fairy garden come with options that are already coloured or ones that you can colour and decorate yourself.  We printed the pieces on cardstock to add a bit of sturdiness to the projects.  As with all of our projects, this is simply a starting point to add your imagination and “make it your own”!

Fairy Garden 

• Paint a box lid (You could use a shallow box itself or skip this step).  This is mainly to keep your fairy small world contained and allow for easy transport.  Allow it to dry overnight.

Fairy Houses

• Print the fairy houses (there are various sizes for you to chose from, based on the size of your toys) and colour them with markers, paint, paint sticks, paint pens etc.  Add details with a fine black marker.

• Cut out the houses.  If you want your door to open, cut going up one side of the door, around the bed on the top of the door and stopping at the part that is then straight.  This will allow your door to open much like a hinged door.

• Put glue on the tab of the house and wrap it around to put the other side over the tab.

• Put glue on the tab portion of the mushroom roof and glue the other side of the circular shape onto it- forming a peaked mushroom top.  (See the video for further understanding)

• You can either glue on your roof or simply place it on top of the house to remove when adding characters if you like!

Trees 

• Paint some cardboard tubes to form the trunks of your trees.   Allow them to dry overnight.

• There are 2 options for the trees- you can make them 2 D or 3D- you can see both of the options in the video.

• Print the tree options that you would like and colour them in if you chose that option.

• For the 2D tree, cut out the tree top and then make cuts along the dotted line.  Slide this onto one end of your cardboard tube.

• For the 3D tree, print the pieces and colour them in if you chose that option.  Once dry, glue the two matching pieces together back to back.  Once dry, cut along the slit lines- both the ones that go into the cardboard tube and the larger one that allows the pieces to slide together.

• Attach the two pieces of the tree together first.  (The branches should line up, as seen in the video)

• Then slide this onto your cardboard tube trunk to create a 3D tree.

Bushes

• The bushes function the same way as the trees, but are shorter to add a bit of different heights to the project.

• Cut your painted cardboard tubes in half or quarters.

• Print and colour in your bushes.  Cut along the dotted lines and slide this onto the cardboard tubes (like mini trunks).

Mushrooms 

• Print the mushrooms and cut them out, colouring them in if you chose that option.

• Our daughter then painted some cardboard tubes, cut them into quarters and snipped them to look like grass, attaching the mushrooms with glue.

Pond

• Print your pond and cut it out to place in your small world.

Fairy Wings

• Transform your toys into fairies with the paper wings.  Print and colour your wings (there is also a coloured option), picking the wing size that matches your toys.  We printed two copies and then glued them together so you could see the colour of the wings from both the front and the back.

Arrange your pieces in your box lid to create a magical fairy world.  We didn’t glue the pieces down so as to allow for movement within the story.  Add your characters and enjoy playing! 

Writing Booklet 

• After playing, the writing booklet is a great way to work on developing and recording a story about your fairy garden and its inhabitants.  Print out the cover (there is an option to colour yourself or one already done) and as many of the writing pages that you would like. (we printed enough for both a rough and good copy).   We have a planning sheet to use prior to which is handy as well: story planner.  Have an adult help you with the editing process.

If you like this idea, you might like our PAPER FARM:

Find the printables here: http://make-it-your-own.com/paper-farm/

OR our BUTTERFLY GARDEN THEATRE with SCRIPT PAGES

Find the printables here: http://make-it-your-own.com/printables-on-hp-play-learn/

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We’d love to see your fairy gardens!

• Please tag us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/make_it_your_own_/) if you make the fairy garden- we’d love to see them!  Didn’t Shikha’s daughter from The Joy of Sharing do a beautiful job of hers?!  Shikha’s site (https://www.thejoysharing.com/) has all sorts of neat ways to use a paper plate for both learning and play!

Purpose

• Creating play items from recyclables.
• Extending one’s play into writing opportunities.
• This fairy paper craft allows children to practice their fine motor skills with cutting, assembling, painting etc.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you use a tray and a smock to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors with care and direct, adult supervision.
• Follow product directions on paint etc.