To introduce our mantle the children explored a range of different fairy tales and identified the features that they found the most interesting. They wrote these on post it notes and used these to create a list of places, settings and characters that they would like to include on a fairy tale map.

The children worked together to create a map of Fairy Tale Land, using their list of ideas. They got creative with paint to create a forest, rivers and a beanstalk, used lollypop sticks to create the trolls bridge and drew lots of houses and buildings for the characters to live in. The children also created signposts for different locations of the map. These looked amazing!

The Mayor of Fairy Tale Land sat at a table in front of the children looking very concerned. They exclaimed "What am I going to do? How am I going to fix this?" The children asked questions to find out who this person was and what their job was. They looked at pictures of different Mayors and identified similarities in the ways that they dress; a red coat, a sparkly gold necklace with a picture of the king, medals and a smart white shirt. We researched the job of a Mayor and found out they are an important person who help's the people of their town, keeps it in order and makes sure they are safe. 

The children enjoyed a range of activities such as designing and decorating a necklace, drawing a portrait of the king, identifying and labelling features of a Mayor, and making their own gold chains!

The children watched the Mayor of Fairy Tale Land as he expressed his concern "The Troll.. I just don't know what to do about it. I need to see the Fairy Tale Problem Solvers and see if they can help!" The children quickly identified themselves as the Team of Fairy Tale Problem solvers!

They firstly came up with a selection of items that their HQ would need; a map, magnifying glasses, a computer, tools and a phone . It also needed to be secret and secure, so maybe an invisible cloak and a gate should be on the outside. The children created a HQ in their role play areas and explored this through their imagination.

The children imagined themselves as a F.T.P.S. What would they wear? What would they carry with them? How would they act? They drew themselves as wrote a sentence 'I am ... and ...' using their ideas.

They also explored what a different team badges look like and used these ideas to create their own. They voted on their favourite an this became our team badge.

The team received a letter from the mayor explaining that the villagers were scared to cross the bridge! We considered why they might be scared and what they troll could have done to upset them! The children considered the POV of the villagers and wrote their thoughts inside of some thought bubbles. 

The team contacted the Mayor and asked for a meeting at the end of the week. There are too many unanswered questions! They gathered together the questions they needed to ask him; What did the troll do wrong? What has happened? What does the troll look like? What can we do to help?

I hope we get some answers soon...

The Problem Solvers had a meeting with the Mayor to discuss all of their questions. They discovered that the villagers were scared to cross the bridge because they could hear the Troll's deep, booming voice from under the deep, murky river water! This is stopping them from crossing the bridge over to the beautiful picnic garden! Nobody has seen this troll before, or know why he is acting this way... so we needed to create our character!
 

The children used role on the wall to create the troll and decide on his characteristics. The children loved deciding what he would wear (a ragged waistcoat), the texture of his skin (bumpy!) and his hairstyle! 

The next step is finding out how to get to him...