Close your eyes and imagine a fairy. What do you see?
Changes are that you will see a tiny person, with long hair and shimmering wings. The fairy is surrounded by flowers, moonlight and glitter.
But what if your were asked to invent a new fairy. What would the fairy look like?
Samantha Bryan’s sculptures of whimsical aviator fairies caught my eyes yesterday. I must admit that most modern fairies do not tempt me, but I love the flower fairies that Cicely Mary Barker painted see The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies
Design challenges are great to get children thinking. Set up a table with materials and ask them to invent a new type of fairy. Recycle materials such as egg-cartons, toilet rolls, cardboard boxes and milk cartons are great to use. Straws, twigs, paper, pipe cleaners, muffin paper, dollies, feathers, pine cones, conkers, acorns. . .
Think dive and ponder over. . .
- What would the fairy look like?
- What does the fairy like to do?
- What does the fairy night-dream about?
- Any special skills?
- Where does the fairy sleep?
- What does he or she like to eat?
- How does the fairy travel?
