Goldilocks and the Three Bears Activities & Lesson Plans

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade

Students always love familiar tales and Goldilocks and the Three Bears story is one of the classic tales that many kindergarten students know. The story of Goldilocks offers a fun way to compare texts.

In this blog post, I will share some of my favorite Goldilocks and the Three Bears activities. There are even a few suggested books that have a different twist to this classic story.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Read Aloud Lessons

When we wrote the lesson plans for our Engaging Readers units, we decided to use three different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Caralyn Buehner

Here is a brief summary of the book:

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Little Wee Bear decide to go on a walk while their porridge cools off. Little did they know a “jump-roping, curly-haired terror ” named Goldilocks would go into their home. She makes everything a mess!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall

In this book, Goldilocks does exactly as she pleases. She eats the bears’ porridge, she breaks Baby Bear’s chairs and sleeps in Baby Bear’s bed. This is a funny version of the classic fairy tale.

Goldie and the Three Hares by Margie Palatini

Here a summary of this book from the publisher:

The Hare family—Papa, Mama, and Little Baby Hare—are enjoying a peaceful day in their rabbit hole until they hear a big THUMP outside their door. The thump is Goldilocks herself, who has fallen down the rabbit hole after being chased by the Three Bears.

This might be my favorite of the three!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Lesson Plans: Reading Comprehension Lessons

We start this Engaging Readers Unit off by visualizing! I love looking at these student illustrations. As primary teachers, we sometimes forget to be explicit with this comprehension strategy. After all, these are picture books, so young students can just look at the illustrators’ version… right?

But what happens when these emergent readers move into chapter books? Have they developed this comprehension “muscle?” Please don’t skip this strategy. In fact, when I taught reading intervention to fourth graders, this was one strategy that was underdeveloped for those who struggled with comprehension. It is so important, don’t skip it.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Sequencing Activities

We use these picture cards to help us sequence the events in each of these fairy tales.

Students place the cards in order

After the cards are in order, students get with their partners and practice orally retelling the story. This activity provides extra practice for oral language development. Kindergarten and first grade students, have picture illustrations to look at should they get stuck. You will start to hear students repeat the repetitive phrases, but we also ask students to synthesize the story and include their own words as well.

Once they have had the chance to retell the story for a few minutes, then students complete the retelling activity in their notebooks.

Comparing Elements of the Story

After reading each version, our young children will discuss the different ways the stories are the same and different. We discuss the main characters and how the end of the story unfolded.

Students add Post-It notes where they drew a end of a story illustration.

Additional Comprehension Strategies

We also work on inferring.

and comparing characters!

Fairy Tale STEM Project

Students were challenged to create a new chair for baby bear Students were challenged to create a new chair for baby bear and the bear family. This is such a fun activity and you can have a group of children work together to complete it.

Fine Motor Skills Project

Students also worked on making a baby bear. Working with dough helps to strengthen their fine motor skills.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Lesson Plans: Extensions

We included a few math activities and literacy skills to go with this book as well! SWEET!

Students spin and graph the bears.

Literacy Centers

Here are few photos of students working on the included rhyming activities.

You can find all of the lesson plan ideas, printable activities, and centers above by clicking:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Unit of Study: Reading Comprehension Unit

Additionaly Goldilocks Centers

A few years ago, I created a set of differentiated centers to cover a variety of literacy skills and math skills. I love having multiple activities available to help meet the needs of all of the individual students’ needs.

Here are a few of the activities.

You can find all of these center activities by clicking:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears | Literacy Centers and Math Centers

Goldilocks and the three bears activities and lesson plan template

If you would like to download a copy of this lesson planning template, you simply have to click on the image below. It will take you right to an editable zipped file in my Google Drive.