The Light Princess: Educational Activities | Ages 9 - 16

The Light Princess: Educational Activities | Ages 9 - 16




OVERVIEW

STORY SYNOPSIS
The Light Princess is based on George MacDonald's fairy tale of the same name. This series tells the story of a princess afflicted by a constant weightlessness, unable to keep her feet on the ground, both literally and metaphorically, until she finds a love that brings her down to earth.

This full series is available in the ComicsPlus content. Use the guide below to further enagge your students into the reading of this series!



GETTING STARTED

This guide is broken into the following subjects: English, Science, Math and History. Each subject is broken up into activity ideas/suggested questions based on the following difficulty scale: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Use these activities/questions to help engage your students further into the reading. 

ENGLISH

Beginner

Imagine what it would be like to live with no gravity. Write and illustrate a short story about what a day in your life would be like if you had no gravity!

Intermediate

The Light Princess is full of puns, which is when you take a homonym and play off the different meanings. A homonym is a word that is spelled the same but has two or more different meanings. For example, McDonald talks about how the princess doesn’t have any physical gravity, which means that she floats, but she also doesn’t have any emotional gravity, which means that she cannot feel complex emotions. Here are some other examples of puns:
1. Ballet is best learned using proper steps and stages.
2. Dyslexic prisoners are not helped by long sentences.
3. Websites about wild cats usually have lynx.
4. To fix a broken clarinet get an instruction manual and give it a good reed.
5. A hot-headed prince needs heir conditioning.
6. A harp which sounds to good to be true is probably a lyre.
Choose any 5 of the following words and create 5 puns of your own!
 Right Engaged
 Rose Date
 Type Point
 Net         Crane
 Leaves Gravity
 Foil         Light

Advanced

While many people want to be happy all the time, we see that this is not always a good thing in the Light Princess. Since she can only feel very shallow emotions, she is not able to engage her heart. Write a paragraph explaining why it is important that we be able to feel deeper emotions like sadness, guilt, reflection and compassion.

SCIENCE

Beginner

While it is impossible to have zero gravity on earth, astronauts who travel into outer space have to figure out how to navigate what it is like to live in a place with no gravity! Research what it would be like to live with no gravity, and write one paragraph describing some of the things that astronauts have to do in order to function in outer space.
Here are some helpful links to get you started!
1. How do astronauts drink in space?
2. How do astronauts brush their teeth in space?
3. How do astronauts sleep in space?

Intermediate

Gravity is essential to our life on earth! Watch this short video about gravity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwY6p-r_hyU
, and then write a down three new things you learned about gravity.

Advanced

In the Light Princess, she is only able to feel weight when she is in the water. This is the opposite for humans, as we feel lighter when we are in the water! Research more about buoyancy, and write a paragraph explaining in your own words why we feel lighter when we are in the water. Here is a helpful link to get you started: https://kinderart.com/blog/weigh-less-water/.


MATH

Beginner

When the prince came to save the light princess, he jumped off the cliff into the water. The princess loved the feeling of falling, as she had never felt this before! 
a. If the cliff was 42 feet tall, and when they landed in the water they sank 12 feet down, how many total feet did the princess fall?
b. How many total inches did the princess fall? 

Intermediate

The Evil Princess Makemnoit had to make a potion to make the Light Princess float. Can you help her figure out how much rose water she needs? 
Recipe: 
The Evil Makemnoit wants to make 2 cups of potion. 1/4 of the potion is water distilled directly from a cloud and the rest is perfume. 1/3 of the perfume is sunflower water and the rest is rose water. How many cups of rose water does she need?


Advanced

When the prince and princess jumped off the cliff, they fell for a 
total of 1.5 seconds before they hit the water. How fast were they falling when they hit the water? 
This problem is much easier to figure out than it sounds! If we assume that the prince and princess just stepped off the edge of the cliff and didn’t run off the edge, then we can use the formula for a free-falling object. The formula is: 

We know that gravity pulls an object towards earth at a speed of 9.8
m/ , and so s2 we can use this value for the force of gravity. We also know that velocity is the same as speed, but just has a direction. In this case, the direction is downwards since they are falling. 
a. How fast were the prince and princess moving in meters per second when they hit the surface of the water? 
b. Convert their speed to miles per hour. 

Math Key Answers

1. The answers are: 
a. They fell a total of 54 feet. 42 feet + 12 feet = 54 feet. 
b. This is the same as 648 inches. 
We know that there are 12 inches in a foot, and so in order to convert 54 feet to inches, we multiply 54 by 12 and get 648 inches. 

2. The recipe calls for 1 cup of rose water. 
First, you have to find how much of the potion is water from a cloud, which we are told is 1⁄4 of 2 cups, which is 1⁄2 cup. When you subtract this from the total 2 cups, this leaves 1 1⁄2 cups, which is the perfume. Now, you need to find how much of the perfume is sunflower water. We know that 1/3 of the perfume is sunflower water, and so 1/3 of 1 1⁄2 cups is 1⁄2 cup. Thus, 1 1⁄2 cups minus 1⁄2 cup leaves you with one cup, which is the rose water. 

3. The answers are: 
a. Their velocity at impact was 14.7 meters per second. 
  1. Using the equation v = gt, we can plug in g = 9.8 m/ s2. 
  1. We will also plug in t = 1.5 s.       
  1. Therefore, v = (9.8 m/ s2 )(1.5 s). 
  1. When you multiply these two together, you get v = 14.7 m/s. 

b. This converts to 32.8 miles per hour. 
  1. In order to convert 14.7 m/s to mi/h, you have to know how many meters are in a mile, and how many seconds are in an hour. A quick internet search will tell you that there are 3600 seconds in an hour, and 1609.344 meters in a mile. In order to convert, you can just multiply the following: 
            

HISTORY

Beginner

Research the author of the Light Princess, George MacDonald, and make a list of 10 interesting facts that you learned about him.

Intermediate

George MacDonald was the author of the book, The Light Princess. Some of the people who loved George MacDonald and were inspired by his books were C.S. Lewis, the author of the Narnia books, J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, and Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland. Research two of these other authors, and write a paragraph explaining how you can see the influence of George MacDonald in their works. 

Advanced

George MacDonald is often called with father of Fantasy literature. Do some research on the definition and history of the fantasy genre, and write a persuasive essay about why it is important for children to read fantasy books when they are growing up.