A Beautifully Illustrated Retold Classic & Frozen Peas!
After reading Rachel Isadora’s retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and The Pea” we decided to try something super simple and new; use a bag of frozen peas for sensory play! If you like super easy Sensory Play, this one is for you. So, let’s get started…
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Summary of “The Princess & the Pea”
“The Princess and the Pea” retold by Rachel Isadora takes place in a beautiful African setting. If you look at the photo above, I think it’s funny how the princess looks like she’s doing a thumbs down. This retelling is great, don’t get me wrong, but my daughter is not a fan of the original story. I don’t blame her its quite antiquated.
Therefore, it prompted us both to take turns reenacting the story with a 21st century twist. In our updated version, the princess tells her love that she doesn’t have to prove herself and she’s not sleeping on all those mattresses, lol. Of course it has a very happy ending, when they work together to take the mattresses down and end up having a playful pea fight before rolling around in them like it’s a big ball pit of peas, lol.
Frozen Peas?
You might be wondering… “What do you do with it?” or “How is this not just going to be a sensory mess with peas rolling around my floor?” There are many ways to answer these two common questions…
First, the most basic answer to “What you could do with Peas?” is… have fun. Sensory play at its finest is not about “doing” something specific. It is about exploring, feeling, listening, watching, problem solving, creating, etc… This is an open-ended activity. Just as each child has their own unique personality, experience, and preference in play, the outcome of this activity is just as special.
As for the second question, Yes, this could definitely become a messy one involving a vacuum! But, I hear you. I’ve been asked that question many times. Therefore, a detailed answer, along with strategies for successful messy sensory play, can be found by reading, “What about the Sensory Mess?”
What We Did with the Frozen Peas…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. So, for this activity my daughter used scissors to cut open the bag of frozen peas and poured them onto the tray.
Next, she explored how they felt, noting how cold they were. She loved holding them between her pointer and thumb fingers (pincer grasp) waiting for them to change from hard to squishy as they defrosted. Of course; she also couldn’t resist popping them into her mouth, after all, this is an edible activity lol.
Then, as I mentioned above; she stacked up the toy beds and began retelling the story to her own liking. She particularly enjoyed having the little people princesses toss the peas at each other. Afterwards, we decided to pull out a new toy have called Spoolz. My daughter loved trying to balance them in many different ways. She scooped and poured, plucked, poked, and squished the peas.
Eventually she decided to create a “wedding cake” out of the spools by stacking them in size order and used peas as the decorative “icing” on the cake! It took a great deal of patience to balance the peas on the rim of the spoolz like that; but she was determined & did it!
I would suggest frozen peas sensory play if you’re looking for an easy activity to connect with your child.
Materials We Used
- “The Princess and the Pea” book (from the library or buy it here)
- A sensory bin, container or tray
- Princess figures
- Toy beds
- Spoolz
- Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make Frozen Peas?
- Open the bag of frozen peas.
- Scoop or pour the peas onto the tray.
- Allow creativity to happen.
One of my favorite things about open-ended sensory play is all the different things it can turn into.
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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