Goldilocks

Personal Social and Emotional

Talk about toys and teddy bears that are special to us. Have a circle time to introduce and talk about the children’s favourite teddy bears and why they are special.   As you read the story, talk about how the characters might be feeling at different parts of the story. Encourage children to make faces to show how the Bears or Goldilocks might be feeling. For example, how might Baby Bear feel when he sees his broken chair?

Communication and Language    

Play a listening game. Choose a child to pretend to be Goldilocks and close their eyes. The rest of the group hide a toy bear around the setting. The group then give audible clues to the seeker to find the hidden bear. When the seeker is near the toy, the group make loud ‘growl, growl’ sounds. When Goldilocks is far away, the group make quiet ‘growl, growl’ sounds, until the toy is located.                      Use the Goldilocks and the Three Bears Can You Find...? Poster to introduce new topic vocabulary. Encourage children to talk about what they can see on the poster and where the items are located.                                                                                                      

Physical Development

Challenge children to shape and mould brown playdough into bears. Children could roll ball shapes or playdough or use bear-shaped cutters. Provide enhancements, such as googly eyes, beads, buttons or pom-poms for children to decorate their bears.                                                                                     Provide a selection of bowls and spoons of different sizes for children to explore in a tray of porridge oats. Encourage children to explore filling the bowls with porridge oats, using the spoons or by pouring the oats from one bowl to another.                                                                                             

Literacy

Read the story to the children and encourage them to join in with repeated refrains, such as the ‘Who’s been eating my porridge?’ phrase said by the bears. Read some different versions of the story and talk about similarities and differences.

Mathematics

Use the story to talk about size. Provide small world toys or cut-outs of the story items in three different sizes. Encourage children to use size and comparative language to talk about the items. Which bear is Baby Bear? Which chair belongs to Daddy Bear? Which bed is the smallest? 

Understanding the World

Make some porridge with the children and talk about what happens to the ingredients as they are mixed together and heated. Learn more about oats and other recipes they can be used in. The children may like to make some other oat recipes, including flapjacks or biscuits.

Expressive Art and Design

Provide paper plates and encourage children to decorate them to look like the bears. Cut out eyes for children to see through to make masks. Children could decorate their masks with fabric, tissue paper or paint.   Explore ways of moving like the different characters in the story, e.g. Daddy Bear is large and slow and Baby Bear is little and lively.

Focused Vocabulary

Goldilocks, Bears, Three, Porridge, Bowels, Chairs, Beds, Too Hot, Too cold, Just right, Too hard, Too soft.