Every little girl goes through her princess obsessed stage at some point! My almost 4 year old recently took a shine to all things princess related, so I decided to run with it and create a princess unit study!
I wanted to include a variety of fun shelf work activities, sensory play, Dramatic play and traditional worksheet activities . Creating a fun and balanced themed unit study can feel overwhelming at first, but isn't too hard once you have the right formula!
Here is what I included in our princess themed unit study to make it a fun whimsical experience:
Shelf Work
I try to follow Montessori learning practices wherever possible , with a Waldorf twist. I keep our activities minimal but do like to include small world play for my daughter's to explore! I also try to keep a good balance of different areas of learning for our self work.
I created and use this little printable to plan out our shelf work each month. I try to stick to this as much as possible, but will change it up sometimes!
I will admit a princess unit study isn't exactly the prime example of Montessori practices BUT it can embody some Montessori characteristics .
Here is a breakdown of each subject I choose to include in our princess unit study:
Math
I decided to use a simple and classic math tool to practice some of the math concepts we have been learning about! These Math Link Cubes came in a fantasy themed set. I purchased them on Amazon and they are definitely an easy way to work on basic math concepts with a preschool. The set comes with princess themed coloured cubes and cute activity cards to work through. Some of the cards might be beyond preschool level , but my daughter still had a blast working through them! Counting, patterns , measuring , graphing and some basic addition and subtraction. This set was great as an engaging math based shelf work activity.
Language
A simple letter recognition activity of a printable letter board and pastel letter cards, was a great simple language based activity. We also did some tracing work with it as well!
I had this activity on our self for awhile and then moved it to our table work activities (my 22 month old kept tossing the cards around and I got tired of picking them up lol).
Practical Life
I have been trying to encourage my daughter to get herself dressed. I thought having a basket of princess dress up clothing was a fun way to practice dressing skills! I included a pair of indoor shoes, a butterfly backpack (zipper and buckle practice) , some dresses, skirts and of course crowns and wands. This activity was a total hit!
Science
Building with magnetic tiles has been my daughter's obsession lately. This particular set has an ice castle theme and was perfect for our unit study.
She had fun building castles, bridges and princess rooms. Magnetic tiles make for a versatile STEM activity perfect for young learners. Click here for the link to the sets I bought!
Art
This fairy themed ballerina dress up doll was a perfect way to incorporate creativity for our unit . It comes with plenty of dresses, wings and other whimsical items to be a "princess fashion designer" according to my daughter.
It makes a great option for art shelf work because it is mess free....my 4 year old is careful with art supplies but my 21 month old is not🙃
Free Play
This cute fantasy themed trainset made for a great free play activity. It enrourged my daughter to plan out her track so the trains could loop all the way around. This set was gifted to us for her birthday and is absolutly adorbale! It comes with a bridge, dragon and castle storage box!
This activity could also fall under STEM activities. I think it fit our theme well and bath my girls had a fun time playing with it!
Here is the amazon link in case you are interested! It seems to go on sale quite often so keep an eye out for it!
More Math
I had a tough time coming up with something princess themed that was related to geography, so I need up including a second math based activity. This cute printable board game is a fun way to practice counting, colours and taking turns. It is quite simple to play and perfect for the preschool age, as it only takes a few minutes to complete.
This printable is part of the fairytale unit study bundle I created. It can be played with dice or a simple colour spinner included in the download package. I paired it with some plastic unicorns , but you could use mini princess figures as well!
Hand Eye/Manipulation
Instead of including a music activity, I decided to add a simple unicorn puzzle to our self work activities. I have noticed my daughter tends to shy away from puzzles, so I thought practicing a simple puzzle with a theme she was interested in might entice her.
Any type of princess puzzle would work well for this unit, this just happened to be one we were gifted as a birthday present, so I decided to make use of it! Here is the amazon link : Unicorn Puzzle
Shape Recognition
Only as I am writing this blog post, am I realizing that we really leaned into math heavily this unit . This shape based puzzle is yet another math based activity but SO versatile.
I choose to include this activity as an easy way to practice shapes. The particular shape set we were gifted, has girly colour tones and a few shape mats that worked well with our unit theme. This is the set we were gifted: Pattern Block Set
Small World Play
This is one of my favourite elements to include in a unit study! Having beautiful small world play setups is a fun way to spark imagine and creativity. My daughter went crazy over this wooden castle set and "fairy forest" playscape while it was set up.
Small world play doesn't have to be elaborate and isn't a necessity , but I do find kids love it! The princess castle set I found on marketplace for $25 and the cute felt set was an Etsy find from a few years back. Here is a link to the Etsy shop: where I purchased the felt set and here: is the amazon link for the Mellisa and Doug Castle
Sensory Play
I always try to include a sensory bin and playdough kit with every unit study we do. I find both activities encourage independent play. My girls loved both the fairy themed sensory bin and the princess playdough kit! The printable mats are available in the Fairytale unit study bundle
I included a variety of dollar store items that fit the princes theme. Sensory bins are a bit of an investment upfront, but once you have a variety of items, it's easy to throw one together quickly. I always save the figures and other pieces to use with other themed bins!
Other Notable Activities
As my youngest daughter has graduated to her toddler era, I have found keeping art based activities in my pantry a better option than leaving them accessible in our playroom. I like to try and include some art based activities with each unit study to bulk it up so to speak. These are the items I ended up including for this unit:
DOT IT- Princess Sticker Activity
This was a fun and mess free activity both my daughter's loved! The package contains princess scenes, where you use matching colour dot stickers to fill the empty spaces! It was a fun way to work on colour matching for my youngest and introduce "shades" for my oldest! It also is a good way to practice filling different shaped objects. We got these from Amazon .
Princess Stamper Kit
This cute set by Melissa and Doug made for another fun, low mess art activity . We ended up using it to make Thank You cards for everyone who attended my daughter's birthday party. She really enjoyed making cards and various pictures with a combination of the stamps and pencil crayons. This set was purchased off of Amazon for her birthday!
Printable Fairytale Themed Unit Study
This was a small printable bundle I creaated myself to add some "school work" type activites to our unit study. We had a fun time working through all of them and it was a really good addition to the rest of our activities! This bundle is available for download Here
Overall our princess /fairytale unit study was a total hit and I definitely plan to recycle the unit again sometime next year!
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