108 Kings and Queens: Supplemental Guide 5A | The Princess and the Pea
[With their partner, have students describe the princess. Allow fifteen seconds
for students to talk. Call on two students to share.]
And oh my, she was a mess! Her hair was dripping, her clothes were
torn and muddy, and water poured out of her shoes.“Who are you?” asked the queen.“I am a princess,” she said. “Really. A real princess.”[Ask students, “Does she look like a real princess to you? Do you think she is a
real princess?”]
Show image 6A-4: Queen prepares room
“Humph!” said the queen, and she thought to herself, We’ll soon see
about that! The queen went into a bedroom and took all the sheets
and blankets off the bed. Then she put one tiny pea on the bed.[Have a student point out the pea in the queen’s hand. You may wish to pass
around some peas for students to touch and describe.]
And on top of that she piled twenty mattresses, and on top of those,
twenty feather-filled pads.[For visualization, you may wish to draw twenty mattresses and twenty pads on
top of a little pea, or you may wish to show this with sponges or layers of thick
cloth.]
“Here is where you will sleep tonight,” she said to the princess.
Show image 6A-5: Princess describes her night
The next morning at the breakfast table, the queen asked the
princess, “Did you have a good night’s sleep?”“No, not at all,” said the princess. “I tossed and turned all night.
Something in the bed was so hard and lumpy—why, I’m bruised black
and blue all over.”[Explain that a bruise is something you get when you bump into something
really hard. Students might be able to relate to having a bruised arm, leg, or
forehead.]
So, she had felt the pea through the twenty mattresses and twenty
feather-filled pads.[Point to your drawing or layers of cloth. You may wish to have a student come up
and sit on a few cushions with a pea underneath to see if s/he can feel the pea.]