Care for the Bears

Activity Overview

Give your student an opportunity to take a beloved story that they’ve heard many times and use dramatic play to explore the social-emotional themes that run through the narrative. Acting out familiar stories is an important way young children learn to internalize sequences, develop empathy for characters, and practice mastery of storytelling structures.

What You Need

• Teddy Bears (or any stuffed animals)!

• Props – bowls, chairs, beds, pom-poms (blankets, plastic containers, boxes, or anything else you can find around the home can substitute for these things).

Steps

1. Gather materials

2. Read Goldilocks and the Three Bears (if you don't have a copy of the book, watch a read-aloud here)

3. Set up a play scenario. Encourage dramatic play and let students get involved in the game by feeding the bears, filling their bowls with pom-poms, or other small objects. Play out different scenarios, experiment with it, and ask questions.

Guiding Questions

• What happens if this bear has more pom poms than the other bears, how would the other bears feel?

• What happens if all the bears have the same amount of pom poms? Would every bear feel happy?

• What happens next?

• Can they share?

• What other familiar stories can you act out together? What about nursery rhymes?

Extensions

• This can be paired with Number Dot Cards. These are available as resources, or can be made on paper. This enhances student’s learning of one-to-one correspondence and their number recognition skill. For example, if there are three bears, they can identify the number three card and place it in front of the bears.

• As an alternative to preparing the materials and simplifying the play activity, encourage the student to find the correct number of bears, bowls, spoons, and beds around the house.