Beauty and the Beast Pretend Play-of-the-Day
The story of Beauty and the Beast and today’s play-of-the-day can help young children deal with the common fear of monsters and scary creatures. Some are afraid of such ordinary things as a vacuum or their own shadow. You can either read this story to your child or tell it using your own words.
As a contrast to many other fairy tales, this time the girl comes to the rescue. A merchant, with a beautiful daughter, goes on a journey and picks a rose from a garden. Unfortunately, the garden belongs to a beast who demands the merchant bring back Beauty. She comes and stays, grows to like Beast, but misses her family. Beast lets her return but asks her to come back at a certain time. Beauty stays too long and Beast falls ill but returns just in time to save him from dying. Her kiss turns him back into a prince, breaking the evil witch’s spell.
This is a fun story to act out after reading or telling because there’s so much action. Young children love and need to move. After sitting and reading this story, it’s time to get up and move around. Ask your child to walk like a beast or monster. You can do this too. Then, kids can try hopping crawling, jumping, and, if there’s enough space like a whole yard or gym, running like monsters. How would a monster fly? Do monsters swim? Kids may need to be reminded that it’s okay for monsters to growl but only outside or if they use an inside voice.
Monsters can also make very scary faces and check themselves out in the mirror. Both boys and girls like to pretend being beasts or monsters. Children can use toys to be the characters. On YouTube there are short videos of the Muppets and Thomas the Tank. Here’s another done by kids.
Reading and talking about monsters and beasts, and pretending to be them in active play all help kids cope with fear of monsters. Any concerns with monsters for your child?