Engaging a young audience
A quest is a concept all will recognise and is familiar from superhero stories and fairy tales. Somebody needs to be rescued, evil must be defeated or there is treasure to discover. If you鈥檙e going to involve a large group of children it鈥檚 probably best to have a number of mini missions that they can be a part of, leading up to the final triumph.
You could set a challenge involving number bonds for five-year-olds to solve. It鈥檚 a good idea to include a little art work with this age group, if the size of the group and the time available allow this. Art work would sustain engagement and help them see where their imagination is taking them.
A modern fairy story for 7 to 11-year-olds
Children in this age range will be familiar with most of the well-known fairy tales and many of them will have come across the idea of adaptation. Your task will be to take them a little further with the story so that they see its structure and the ideas it contains. Cinderella is a story about bullying being punished. That鈥檚 readily transferable, as is the ball or party idea. Maybe the prince took a photo of Cinderella on his mobile phone and is trying to find her on social media networks. The ugly sisters could go online and pretend that they are Cinderella which could serve as a warning to children that online interaction can be dangerous.