It is so fun to read a fairy tale with your class every now and then. This week we are spotlighting a popular fairy tale that has an unexpected ending. The Paper Bag Princess is not your traditional princess book. Instead, the princess Elizabeth, is a strong character who doesn’t need saving, in fact, she does the saving. This book is a great example of a strong female character for students! I love this book because unlike traditional fairy tales, the princess decides that she doesn’t need the prince. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
The Paper Bag Princess is about a princess named Elizabeth. She lives in a castle, wears expensive princess clothes, and is going to marry Prince Ronald. That is, until a dragon comes and smashes the castle, burns her clothes, and carries Prince Ronald to a cave. Having only a paper bag to wear, Elizabeth chases after the dragon to save her prince.
When she gets to the cave, Elizabeth tricks the dragon into using all of his fire, and becoming so exhausted that he falls asleep. When Elizabeth enters the cave and saves Prince Ronald, his reaction is not what she expected. Instead of saying thank you, he tells her that she looks like a mess. Elizabeth tells him that even though he is a prince he is behaving like a toad, and decides that she doesn’t need him anyways.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
A fairy tale like The Paper Bag Princess lends itself to so much instruction! It is a great resource to practice reading comprehension strategies with a new genre. Fairy tales also give students an opportunity to write about a genre of book they typically wouldn’t. Below we have identified a variety of skills you can teach your class using The Paper Bag Princess.
- Practice thinking about the events in a story by having students sequence important parts of the book. This is a helpful skill when it comes to retelling.
- Examine the cause of actions in the story and discuss the effect they had on the characters.
- Have students get creative with their writing by adding to the story themselves.
- Encourage them to make connections to the story and engage in narrative writing to tell their own story.
- Teach about action verbs, shades of meaning and suffixes.
- Discuss the importance of self esteem and being respectful.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
The Paper Bag Princess is sure to be a favorite read aloud in your classroom. You won’t need anything other than this one resource to have fun with this book in your class!
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
- Grace For President by Kelly DiPucchio
- Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
- Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
