Books
🌿Backyard Fairies by Phoebe Wahl
This simplistic story details looking in the home and in the wild for tiny signs of fairy activity. 
🌿Margaret’s Unicorn by Briony May Smith
Young Margaret and her parents move to an island to live with her grandmother. Mourning life changes and the loss of familiar people and places, Margaret spots clouds that look like unicorns racing off into the sky at the end of summer. When she finds a baby unicorn that’s been left behind, she cares for the special animal through the fall and winter until its family returns in the spring and she has to say goodbye. I love so many things about this book, like its themes on change and the art style that captures the untamed wildness of Margaret’s new home.
🌿Mermaid & Me by Soosh
A girl who loves mermaids and dressing as a mermaid is dismissed by her peers. One day at the water’s edge she meets a “water girl” she names Mermaid. Although they are each limited in the activities they can do together, they find ways to accommodate one another’s needs and do things together, saying, “You will–we will!” When Mermaid becomes entangled in ocean trash, the little girl recruits her peers to come and help. Mermaid eventually leaves to find a safer home, but she and the little girl one day reconnect as adults, each with their own child.
🌿Pearl by Molly Idle
Young mermaid Pearl longs for an important responsibility like other mermaids have in caring for their world. When her mother entrusts with a single tiny grain of sand, she feels disappointed that she’s been given charge of so little. Even so, she discovers that with just a little gentle care, the grain of sand gains a shining luster. She polishes and cares for the tiny grain which begins to grow and grow until she and it rise up and up and it floats into the skies to become the big bright moon, illuminating and bettering her world.
🌿The Selkie Girl by Janis MacKay
In this telling, a young boy named Fergus finds a sealskin hidden on the beach and brings it home. As the tide goes out, a young selkie girl becomes distressed. Without her sealskin she cannot return home to her family. The boy tries to befriend her, but she cannot be happy without being free. Fergus agrees to return the sealskin to her and she returns to the sea as a seal again.
🌿Selkie by Josephine Birch
This book has no words, just lots of watercolor pictures. A young fisherman hears others telling tales about mythical ocean encounters. When he falls into the sea, he’s saved from drowning by a gray seal. The pictures never confirm for us whether the seal is indeed a magical selkie or if it’s just an ordinary seal, and I love that kind of mystique in my mythology.
In the Land of Elves by Daniela Drescher
This illustrated book describes the activities of the elves and their children through the year and the turning of the seasons.
Fairies: A Magical Guide to the Enchanted Realm by Alison Maloney
This richly-illustrated book has many detailed descriptions of different types of fairies from various mythologies. The presentation is all non-linear, so you could easily pick and choose small excerpts to read from, but there is no story to speak of.
Oona by Kelly DiPucci
In this story, a curious young afro-sporting mermaid named Oona loves to explore and is always wondering how to reach a special spot treasure spotted in a dark rift in the sea floor. She tries several different experiments to reach the treasure, but she can time her plans fail. One day she invents a pair of glasses and goes for it, finally reaching the special crown!
The Mermaid by Jan Brett
In this underwater retelling of Goldilocks, a family of octopuses venture out for a walk and a curious mermaid enters their home. They return to find evidence of her presence until they happen across the mermaid herself asleep in a bed.
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly
In this book, a monster is described and illustrated one feature at a time, page by page. When the monster is complete, the narrator dismisses the monster away again, feature by feature. While Emberly’s book is intended to empower children to brave their fears of monsters at bedtime, and I’ve used it to encourage children to speak up for themselves in the classroom, I’ve always found the book most suited to learning facial features.
Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthall
A young unicorn believes that maybe little girls do exist. Despite her peer’s teasing and her parents’ disbelief, she continues to dream–not knowing that somewhere out there, there was a real little girl that continued to believe in unicorns.
Thumbelina by Brian Alderson
In this retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s classic tale, a woman wishing for a child grows a flower that opens to reveal a tiny girl the size of your thumb. Little Thumbelina is stolen from her walnut bed by a toad who wishes the girl to marry her son. She escapes with the help of some fish and wanders around in the wilderness until she finds shelter with Mrs. Mouse who wishes Thumbelina to marry the wealthy Mr. Mole. While living underground, Thumbelina finds an injured and half-frozen swallow who she nurses back to health. The swallow returns before Thumbelina marries the mole and takes her away to his summer villa where the crystal fairies live. Thumbelina is shown at the end sporting a pair of wings and smiling hand in hand with another fairy.
Julien is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
In this story, young Julien is riding a train with his grandmother when he sees a group of women dressed as mermaids. When they return home, Julien finds a creative way to make himself look like a mermaid too. His grandmother walks back into the room and looks surprised, but reassures and supports Julien by giving him a necklace to round out his look. Then she takes him to a special local event where there are many people dressed as mermaids and other sea creatures!
The Mermaid Moon by Briony May Smith
Sophie Johnson: Unicorn Expert by Morag Hood
Young child Sophie Johnson is obsessed with unicorns and knows everything about them. She finds a way to add a horn to make just about anything a unicorn. This story has more to do with what it’s like to be three or four than it does with unicorn mythology, but it’s still pretty cute.
Creative Art Opportunities
🦄Paint with glitter in it
🦄Flower & leaf confetti collage
🦄Butterfly confetti collage\
🦄Sequin scale collage
🦄Mermaid tail sponge stamp
🦄Dragon/mermaid scale sponge stamp
🦄Scale print stencil
Hands On Experiences
⛅️Explore a “dragon egg”
⛅️Toy unicorn and/or pegasus
⛅️Toy dragon
⛅️Sparkly pompom’s & butterfly nets for fairy sprites
⛅️Play with wooden fairy dolls
⛅️Care for troll baby doll (it’s a thing–I had one in the 90’s and I found another ten years ago)
🌿Use sticks or snow to create a stable for unicorns or pegasi
🌿Explore with mermaid dolls in a pool or lake
🌿Splash like a mermaid in a pool or lake
🌿Explore with fairy dolls in a garden
🌿Go for a hike while dressed as a fairy
🌿Create a fairy crown out of flowers
Songs to Learn and Sing
“White Coral Bells ” – American folk song, also sung by Laurie Berkner
White coral bells, upon a silver stalk
Lilies of the valley deck my garden walk
Oh, don’t you wish that you could hear them ring?
That will only happen when the fairies sing.
“I Want to Ride a Unicorn” by Chanelle & Friends
I want to ride a unicorn
I want to see it glow
I heard they grant wishes
I would wish that I could grow
Another baby unicorn so mine would have a friend
I want to ride a unicorn…
I want to ride a unicorn
I want to see it glow
I heard they grant wishes
I would wish that I could grow
Another baby unicorn so mine would have a friend
I want to ride a unicorn… The End
“Enchanted Forest“ – Kath Bee (excerpt)
Toadstools and fairies and eyes looking down at you from the trees
Witches and goblins and whispers that carry on the breeze
Mystical waterfalls casting a spell on you
Find what you’re looking for in the enchanted forest
Wizards and dragons and wild beasts howling to the moon
Fireflies dancing to music that draws you into its tune
Fountains of water that keep you young forever
Find what you’re looking for in the enchanted forest
What will you see? Magic and mystery
Let your imagination run wild
Soft moss and tree roots that come to life under your feet
What will you hear? Secrets from nowhere
And music that comes from your heart
Such an adventure in the enchanted forest
Ooooooo Oooooooo
In the enchanted Forest
“The Faerie Ring” – The Darkeyed Musician (excerpt)
I will dance on grass and bark
Between the storms and forest dark
I will dance in fading light
When sky is black and stars are bright
I will dance as morning dawns
Upon the glades and rolling lawns
I will dance as seasons turn
Among the foxglove and the fern
Who shall come and join me, join me, join me?
Who shall come and join me among the fae to dance
Dance in the round, in the round, all around, all around
In the faerie ring?
Sing under tree, under tree, and be free, and be free
In the wood with me
And we shall be as one, we shall be as one
And we shall be as one, amid the faerie ring
“Song of the Sea” – Lisa Hannigan (excerpt; from Song of the Sea, a children’s film about selkies)
Between the here, between the now
Between the North, between the South
Between the West, between the East
Between the time, between the place
From the shell
A song of the sea
Neither quiet nor calm
Searching for love again
[Mo ghrá]
“Mermaid Parade” – Claudia Robin Gunn
“Puff the Magic Dragon” – Peter Yarrow, based on a poem by Leonard Lipton
NIYN – Mythology on Spotify
All playlists are works in progress and are actively curated when I have a unit in play or preparation, so new songs may appear and old songs may be removed if they don’t suit my designs.
Nature In Your Nurture 