Bringing The Three Bears to Life

I brought my Goldilocks and The Three Bears story bag for the little ones to play with.

I moved their little table over with one of it's hard chairs, added a softer foot stool and a little wood stool for baby bears chair.

A big bowl, a medium bowl and a little bowl with spoons were set on the table.

Blankets were set around on the couch for the bears' beds.

Here is Goldilocks trying them out.

 Each child picked a bear to play with.

C picked Momma Bear,

 M picked Pappa Bear,

and D chose the Baby Bear, although it looks like it is soon to be grabbed by one of her cousins.

The older one, who is familiar with the story, took Goldilocks through her paces.

While the younger ones played with all the props.

 After playing for awhile I moved the table back to it's spot and we set up the bowls and bears.

And the play continues.

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

The Little One was excited to see a new story set up for her to play with.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

 I painted peg dolls to look like the characters in the story.

An old door knob works for the table with 3 bowls painted on it.

Wooden spools are their chairs and I used foam for the beds.

Everything can be packed away into the little suitcase.

Goldilocks walking through the forest.

Two of the trees are hand painted and the other three were simply made by hot gluing a dowel between two pieces of felt and stuck in a spool.

After reading the story to her she went through it herself.

Then started to use the props to tell a story.

The bears getting the porridge ready and sitting on their chairs. 

Then they went to bed.

Love that she created her own way.

Gingerbread Peg Dolls

Happy Holidays!

The Little One and her parents have been going for walks in the evening checking out the lights.

My grand daughter loves it.

I decided to combine her interest in lights with a gingerbread theme play box.

I painted new peg dolls to look like gingerbread.

There is a mom, dad, sister and baby.

They are set up in a card board box that I have painted the inside.

Lights are hung from the ceiling of the box.

I also painted a wooden house with brown chalkboard paint.

She can use chalk to decorate it like a gingerbread house.

Even inside we drew some beds.

I added a couple of books and we've read them several times already.

I was a little slow getting a picture of her reading a book herself.

She was excited to show Dad when he got home from work.

The lights are poked through the top of the box and she is fascinated with them.

We've been retelling the story in different ways, drawing, video, oral.

It's one of my favourites.

I love catching moments like this when her parents get down and play with her.

Good Night Gorilla in the Grass

We love this book, "Goodnight Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann and have been reading it almost everyday for the past month or so.

I dug out the literacy bag I had put together years ago for StrongStart and strung a clothesline between two chairs in the back yard.

Each animal was behind their 'cages'.  The cages were hung, on the line, with clothespins (which she loved helped taking off when we were all done).

I gave her a set of coloured paper keys that matched the cages.

She knew all about the keys from the book as well I had found some extras at a thrift store for her to play with.

As she opened each cage she played with that animal.  Inspecting them. Getting to know them.

She wasn't in a rush to get each of them out.

The animals were lined up, like in the story, as she removed them from the cage.

Once the story was done she continued to play with the animals.

And her poor baby doll got locked up too.