GOLDILOCKS - 'All About Me' topic inc. our senses and healthy eating.

I didn't really realise the importance of teaching the traditional tales to children until I started working with adult migrants.  In English, there is so much reference to the classics - and often the reference is implied.   For many of the children in my class, English is often a second or third language, sometimes fourth.  So I generally try to include some of the traditional tales throughout the year.

I love using Goldilocks because it offers so many teaching opportunities.  This year I used it alongside a topic on 'ourselves'.  The main focus was healthy bodies and our 5 senses, but Goldilocks crept in to most of the curriculum areas (as the little miss is prone to do).

Here are some snapshots of related activities that the children particularly enjoyed:

 We created the 3 Bears Health Food Cafe.  The children bought in menu's, takeaway containers, chopsticks etc from home.  The waiter checked off sizes off portions of big, medium and small on her order pad.  The children made some delicious looking 'observation drawing/paintings' which became posters to decorate the cafe wall.

 We learnt the action song, 'When Goldilocks went to the House of the Bears'.  This song supported nicely our focus on the sense of sight.  We went for a walk around the school to see what shapes our blue/brown/black eyes could see, and took photos of the shapes we found to make a poster on the wall of the different shapes. 

We checked out the ingredients required to make porridge and them made a pot.  We tasted the 3 bears porridge - too salty, too sweet and just right.  Mama Bears porridge was a hot favourite despite being ridiculously sweet.

We made fruit salad for the 3 Bears Cafe, but first we explored the fruit through our senses.  The leaves of the Cape Gooseberries made a delightful rustling sound.

We talked about Goldilocks' behaviour (I was thinking of including Roald Dahls version of Goldilocks from Revolting Rhymes, but didn't in the end) Goldilocks wrote a letter of apology to the 3 bears and we discussed what she could do to make amends.  Mama and Papa Bear soothed the distraught baby bear with 'Rock-a-Bye Your Bear'.  Some of our kind souls modelled new chairs for baby bear from recycled materials.  We created a skit from the song which we performed in assembly. The children made their own head bands to represent their role in the skit.

And of course we did the usual sorting, size and sequencing activities along with an online story and game.