Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This week was a fun one. This story and the accompanying challenge were something that I've been wanting to try, so I was glad to finally test it out. We read a few versions of the Goldilocks story and the children were challenged to build a bed that would hold Goldilocks (and maybe the bears too). 

Outline: 

Opening song: Put your hands up high

Opening rhyme: Hands go up

Original Story: Use Storytime Toys playhouse to tell

Story: Goldilocks and the Three Bears: A Tale Moderne by Steven Guarnaccia

Song: When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears
Oh what did her two eyes see?
A bowl that was huge
A bowl that was small
A bowl that was tiny and that was all
She counted them: one, two, three

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears
Oh what did her two eyes see?
A chair that was huge
A chair that was small
A chair that was tiny and that was all
She counted them: one, two, three

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears
Oh what did her two eyes see?
A bed that was huge
A bed that was small
A bed that was tiny and that was all
She counted them: one, two, three

When Goldilocks ran from the house of the bears
Oh what did her two eyes see?
A bear that was huge
A bear that was small
A bear that was tiny and that was all
They growled at her: grrr, grrr, grrr!

Source: BBC

Story: Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson

Activities: Sorting by Size
Source for template: Preschool Alphabet

Craft: Build a bed for Goldilocks

Final Story: Goatilocks and the Three Bears by Erica S. Pearl

Goodbye song

How it actually went: 

Using the little playhouse to tell the original story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears went better than I expected. I was so sure that all of the children would want to touch everything and I would spend more time asking them to step back so everyone could see, than I would actually telling the story. I had a little smaller than normal audience this week, so maybe that was part of it. 

The Goldilocks and the Three Bears Stortyime playhouse.

After going over the classic fairy tale, we moved on to our first fractured version. Steven Guarnaccia's version was really fairly close to the classic tale that most people know. The key differences are in the illustrations and the way the characters speak. It's a lot of fun. 

When "Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears" was a new song for me and for the kids. I also decided to try out connecting my phone to the CD player via Bluetooth for the first time. It worked okay, but wasn't very loud. I actually think this might have worked better if we had just sung it ourselves since the YouTube video went a little fast for the kids. 

Large, Medium, and Small bowls, chairs, and beds. These were originally going to be used as part of a sorting game, but instead became props for "When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears."

Goldilocks and Just One Bear was great. The kids found the bear's confusion to be hilarious. They also quickly identified that it was a flip-flopped version of the original tale. It was a great book for comparing a fractured version to the classic one. 

We did some more coding with the ASCII Binary Alphabet, but I forgot to get a picture this week. I used our Ellison Die Cut again. This time I made brown bears and black bears with the brown bears representing 1 and the black bears representing 0. As before the kids enjoyed calling out the 1s and 0s so we could spell BEARS.

During our craft time, I challenged the kids to build a bed for Goldilocks. I had card stock cut outs of Goldilocks and each of the Bears that I had weighted with pennies. If their bed could hold Goldilocks' weight, then we tested to see if it could hold each of the Bears. If the bed could hold each character individually, we then tested to see if it could hold everyone. 

One of the kids plans out a bed design with his dad.

The children did great work with this challenge. I made some changes from when we built a house for the Three Little Pigs. When I challenged the kids to build a house, I provided the same limited number of supplies to each child, and I did not make any sample houses for them to copy. I had hoped by doing this that the children would get creative. Instead, the children seemed paralyzed and their parents did most of the work. 

One of the dads helps his son tape the legs on his bed.

This time, I put all of the supplies out and let the children grab whatever they thought they needed, but asked them to please not take all of any one item; they needed to remember that they were all sharing the supplies. I also came up with a few sample beds, but made sure the children understood that mine had not been tested, so I had no idea if they would support Goldilocks or any of the Bears. 

One of the children based her bed design after one of my examples. I loved watching her work because I could see her constantly assessing and fixing her design.

It worked so much better this time. From what I could see the parents were working in more of the support role that I like to see, and the children were taking ownership of their designs. Instead of straight-up copying my samples, as I had feared, they spring-boarded off of my ideas and came up with their own. 

Success! This bed can support Goldilocks.

Some of the children finished early, so I told them they were welcome to play with the Goldilocks play house that they weren't allowed to touch while I was telling the story. It was pretty adorable watching them play together and retell the story to each other. 

Another success! This bed is large and stable enough to support Goldilocks and the entire Bear family.

Once everyone had finished and tested their beds, we read our final story, Goatilocks and the Three Bears. The children thought it was hilarious (spoiler alert: she eats everything). 

Next Wednesday is our final storytime of 2016 (yeah you're reading this weeks after the fact), so I'm hosting what I call a Fairy Tale Free-for-All. We're reading some fractured tales that incorporate multiple characters, and I'm going to pull out all of the activities we've done since I started using fairy tales, and just let the kids have at it. I'm looking forward to it. 

*Disclaimer* While this post contains links to Amazon and other online stores. I am not an affiliate for any of these sites, and I do not receive any compensation for any sales that may result.