In the Classroom: Goldilocks and the Three Bears through Project Approach

The fairy tale spark came from teacher Jerri. Jerri loves to share a variety fairy tales with the children during morning meeting, transition times or even afternoon relaxation time.  The favorite ones are when the characters in the story include some of our Leapfrogs! We stocked our reading corner with diversity of fairytales to encourage the spark that was lit.

After reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall, Leapfrogs were committed to create a production.  We drew lots of inspiration from watching short videos of other children performing plays and reading other retellings of the story such as Leola and the Honey Bears which is an African-American version of the story by Melodye Rosales and The Three Bears by Paul Galdone whose writing includes a spunky, gap-toothed Goldilocks. 

After researching, we decided to make the setting in a forest.  We painted two brown trees and added actual leaves and branches from our playground to enhance our scenery.  We painted the bears’ home red and blue with a big window.  We set up a table with a big sized bowl, medium sized bowl and tiny bowl for our bears.  Many of the children created the scenery without any help from the teachers! Jerri worked in small groups to write the script and choose the costumes.  Our favorite song “Grizzly Bears” was incorporated in the play. Then we began to practice, practice, and practice!

With all of the excitement, we decided to put on a show for our parents.  All of the parents joined us one afternoon, and our room was full of smiling faces and cameras as we put on our production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  The Leapfrogs took great pride in their work! Using the project approach had a significant impact for the class. The children continue to retell the play during free choice in our dramatic play area.