For the little ones in your life that enjoy fairy play and all things magical.
Read on to find out some ways to inspire their play and creativity ... 🧚♀️ 🧚♂️
Fairy play is a wonderful way to engage your child’s creativity and imagination. If your child is showing an interest in fairies, you can use this interest to set up invitations to play to engage them in play.
Fairies are so magical, which means that often little ones get excited and extra creative in their play. The ideas below are all things that we have done at home over a period of time to follow Miss 5’s interest in fairies.
Remember you do not need to have all the items shown to create magical fairy play. Use what you already have or get your child involved in making props using everyday items from around the home e.g, cardboard boxes, paint, treasures collected from nature.
We hope you find some inspiration for your playful learning journey.
Fairy Potion Play
Fairy potion making is not only a fun play idea, but a great way to introduce some simple scientific concepts, such as mixing, making observations, and simple chemical reactions.
We used a potion making kit that we bought from Little Potion Co. that had all the things needed for making some fizzy and sparkly fairy potions. You can see all the ingredients in the photo below, including fizzy fairy dust and some sparkly fairy liquid potion. I really like that the kit has a little affirmation card in it. You could make your own affirmation card at home.
To set up this invitation to play, I used some items from the kitchen, our potion kit, a container of water, and some rose petals and crystal chips. Miss 5 really enjoyed making potions and was very excited to watch them fizz and change colour. She thoroughly enjoyed this and it was well worth the little bit of mess that was made during the process. She engaged with this invitation to play for a long period of time.
Eventually the potion making fizz ran out, but as Miss 5 was having so much fun, we added in some kitchen ingredients to continue the play. To extend the play further, we added in a baking tray, ice-tray mould, some bi-carb soda, and a cup of vinegar with a twisty dropper.
Miss 5 enjoyed watching the fizz here and did not mind that the new potions were not coloured. She ended up mixing them all together and had lots of fun creating new magical potions.
At home you can use kitchen ingredients to make your fairy potions, or you can buy a ready made kit. A quick internet search of potion making for kids will give you options for what to use. Alternatively, coloured water dyed with a few drops of food colouring makes great non-fizzy potions and items from the garden could be added in too e.g. flower petals, leaves etc.
*Tip - if you are worried about mess, set this potion making invitation up outside or in a large container (e.g. under-bed storage container). Towels or a waterproof mat underneath the table also work well.
Fairy Land Water Play 🧚♀️
This water fairy land was actually a continuation from the above potion mixing play. Miss 5 poured the potions all together onto the plate. We added in some little fairy figures and some coloured plastic reusable ice cubes.
This was happily played with as a small world. The silicone patty cases became fairy boats, the large blue stones were treasure.
Lots of imaginative play was happening and it all came from extending the potion play, by adding in a few new elements. This can be done with any play in which your child engages. Try adding in some different figurines (animals, fairies etc) and seeing what unfolds.
Before After
* Tips: Items from the kitchen work well for this type of play. Just remember not to use special items, as they may get stained or broken. The white ceramic platter pictured above ended up with pink lines on it from the potions.
* If you are worried about the mess with this play, it would make a great outside play activity or put a water-proof blanket or towels underneath to catch any spills.
Fairy Garden Small World
This fairy garden tray is a great way to set up a fairy garden when you need a lower maintenance version of an outdoors fairy garden. Miss 5 and I bought a few little fairy garden items including, an arch, path and seesaw from our local garden shop to create an outdoor fairy garden. As it is Autumn here in Australia, nearly Winter, we decided to wait for nicer weather to create our outdoors fairy garden.
In the meantime, we used a wooden tray, some fake grass and bits and pieces to create this fairy land.
We also added in:
Fairies - these were from The Small Folk and are beautifully made
Trees - The green round ones are the brand Papoose from The Small Folk. The other two are DIY trees we made at home using off cuts of tree branches and fake greenery from a Bunnings hedge tile.
Leaves and bark from the garden
Green pebbles - Grimms brand from Honey Bee Toys
Little table and chairs from Kmart - they came with a treehouse set
Miss 5 enjoyed gathering leaves from the garden to add to the little fairy garden. Children can also add in other items from the garden or that they have collected in nature - e.g. pinecones, shells, flowers, twigs etc.
This is an easy way to create a magical little fairy land for play. It is portable and can be easily changed. We will be able to re-use the outside fairy garden items in the future to create an outdoor fairy garden.
Fairy Wishes Sensory Tray
This was a simple sensory tray using a black Kmart tray and some lentils. We added in some pom poms to be little pretend fairy wishes and a fairy wand. Scoops and bowls allowed the pom poms to be picked up and put into the bowls.
Simple, but lots of fun! A tray like this is great for calming play, while also working on fine motors skills (picking up the pom poms) and hand eye coordination too.
*Tip: You can use containers/bowls from the kitchen and a spoon or tongs if you don't have little sensory play tools. Sensory play bases can be saved and re-used again and again.
* These fairy play ideas are recommended for ages 3+ as they use small parts. We recommend adult supervision for all play ideas.
There is something so special about fairy play that little ones are drawn to! I could have added many more ideas here, so be on the look out for some more fairy play ideas in the future. I hope you have found some inspiration for your own play.
We love to see your ideas and how your play was inspired. Please tag us on instagram @our.playful.learning.journey to share your play.
Any other fairy play ideas or questions, please share below in the comments.
Until next time, have fun learning in a playful way xx
For more play and learning ideas visit the homepage.
Make sure you subscribe to our email list so you never miss out on new posts.
Save these ideas for later - Pin now
