Today we’re going to use the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears for our therapy lesson. And I will show you how you can incorporate speech production, receptive language, expressive language, and vocabulary into a familiar story. With the Three Bears story, I have all the pieces of the story that I can use on a felt board, or on a table if I am doing one-on-one therapy.
“Once upon a time there were three Bears. The Papa Bear, the Mama Bear, and the Baby Bear.” I introduce each picture as I name it.
“One day, Mama Bear decided to make porridge for breakfast. She made some for Papa Bear. She made some for Mama Bear herself. She made some for Baby Bear.” I introduce the large bowl, the medium bowl, and the small bowl and place them on the felt board.
“But the porridge was too hot. So Mama Bear said, let’s go for a walk in the woods. So the three Bears went for a walk in the woods.” I move the three Bears off the felt board
“While they were gone, Goldilocks came. She knocked on the door, but no one answered, so she went in.” I introduce Goldilocks and place her on the felt board near the bowls of porridge, arranged left right right, large bowl, medium bowl, and small bowl.
“Goldilocks saw the porridge sitting on the table and she was very hungry. She tried Papa Bear’s porridge. It was too hot.” Move Goldilocks from bowl to bowl.
“She tried Mama Bear’s porridge. It was too cold. She tried Baby Bear’s porridge. It was just right. And she ate it up.”
“Then Goldilocks went into the living room.” Move Goldilocks over to the three chairs, in order (from left to right) of large chair, medium chair, and small chair.
“Goldilocks sat on Papa Bear’s chair. It was too hard. Goldilocks then sat on Mama Bear’s chair. It was too soft.”
“Then she sat on Baby Bear’s chair and it was just right. But Goldilocks was too big and she broke Baby Bear’s chair.” I turn Baby Bear’s chair on its side.
“Goldilocks was feeling very tired and she went upstairs and she decided to lay down.” Move Goldilocks over to the three beds, laid out (left to tight) big bed, medium bed, and small bed.
“Goldilocks laid down on Papa Bear’s bed, but it was too high. She laid down on Mama Bear’s bed, but it was too low.”
“Then she laid down on Baby Bear’s bed and it was just right. And she fell asleep.” Place Goldilocks on the small bed, then bring the three Bears back on the felt board.
“Pretty soon, the three Bears came home. Papa Bear said, someone’s been eating my porridge.”
“Mama Bear said, someone’s been eating my porridge. And Baby Bear said, somebody’s been eating my porridge. And they ate it all up.” Turn the small bowl over to show it is empty.
“The three Bears went into the living room. Papa Bear said, somebody’s been sitting in my chair. Mama Bear said, somebody’s been sitting in my chair.”
“And Baby Bear said, somebody’s been sitting on my chair. And they broke it and he started to cry.” Turn the small chair over to show it is broken.
“The three Bears went up to the bedroom. Papa Bear said, somebody’s been sleeping in my bed. Mama Bear said, somebody’s been sleeping in my bed.”
“And Baby Bear said, somebody’s been sleeping in my bed. And there she is. And Goldilocks woke up. She saw the three little Bears and she ran out of the house. And she never came back again.” Move Goldilocks off the felt board as she runs away.
So now that I’ve told The Three Bears story, you can have your student do their story. And you can help them by asking, “What did Papa Bear say?” Or “What did Mama Bear say?”
You can also do different things such as ask, “Which bowl goes with Papa Bear? The biggest or the smallest?” “Which bowl goes with Baby Bear? The medium sized one or the big one? Or the small one?” So that way you’re getting your vocabulary in there. Small, medium, large. You can also do things such as ask, “Where would we find chairs in our house? We can find them in our living room. We can find them in our kitchen. We can find them in our dining room.”
You can incorporate questions such as, “What do you do with a chair? Are the chairs the same color or are they different colors?”
You can talk about the bedroom. “What do you do in your bedroom? What do you do with your bed? What do you put on your bed?”
You can also talk about sequence when you’re talking about this story. “What happened first? What did Mama Bear do first? What did Papa Bear do? Who came to their house?”
If you’re looking at speech production, reinforce. “How do I say that? That has your P sound (for example) in the beginning. Papa. That has a P sound in the middle of the word also. Let’s say that again.”
After you’ve finished your lesson with Goldilocks and The Three Bears and your student has told you the story and you’ve gone over some questions, when you clean up you can also incorporate activities. When we are gathering pieces to put away, I do things such as “Find something that you can eat and put it in the bag.”
So I know there are three different bowls of porridge. One, two, three, and I might reinforce “Give me the large bowl first, then give me the small bowl next, and give me the medium bowl last.”
“Now I want you to find a type of animal that lives in the woods. He likes to eat berries and he’s a daddy.” That way they know that they’re not to pick the Mama or the Baby.
“Find something that you would sleep on, that is in your bedroom, not in your mom or your dad’s bedroom.” That way they would pick Baby Bear’s bed.
“Find something that you can sit on that’s blue.” So now you’re reinforcing colors.
Maybe you also want to have them give you a clue (to work on their expressive language). So they might tell you to find something you could sit on.
And I might think, Hmm, I see two things I can sit on. I am not sure which one to pick. What else could you tell me about that? So maybe I would say you could tell me the color, you could tell me the size.
Is it big or little? Is it purple or brown? And if they tell me it’s big and purple, then I know it’s Mama Bear’s chair.
I might again have them do another one. If they said to me, find something that has blue on it.
And I’m going to stop and I’m going to look really carefully because Mama Bear’s bedspread has blue flowers. Papa Bear’s bedspread has blue checks. Oh, Mama Bear is wearing a blue shawl around his shoulders. And Baby Bear’s wearing a blue shirt.
So I might say, Hmm, I see four different things. I am not sure which one to pick. Tell me something else about it. And I might have to be more specific and ask, What do I do with it? If they say to me, You wear it, I say, Oh, I wear it. It’s a type of clothes. So now I know it’s not Papa Bear’s bed or Mama Bear’s bed. And I’m gonna look really carefully. I say, Hmm, what part of my body do I wear it on? If they tell me I wear it on my shoulders, I’m gonna look at them and say, Hmm, you know what? Mama Bear’s shawl goes on her shoulders. And Baby Bear’s shirt goes on his shoulders. What else can you tell me about it? Maybe he can tell me, he or she, whoever your student is, Oh, it can have buttons on it, or they have a picture on the front of it. Then I’m going to know it’s the shirt.
Now it’s my turn and I’m gonna try to be tricky. “I want you to find something that’s white. It goes around your waist. You tie it with a bow. And this one is on top of a pink dress.” So hopefully that will give them a clue that I’m looking for Goldilocks.
And then I might say, “Do you know what Goldilocks is wearing? This piece of clothing that is white and it goes on the front of her dress, but it ties in the back.” And if they don’t know, I will tell them it’s called an apron and explain you wear it when you’re cooking to keep your clothes clean.
I might say next, “Find two things that I could sleep in.” So that means that they would have to find two beds and I would count with them. One, two, two beds. Two beds go in my bag.
The whole time I’m doing this, I’m reinforcing speech production. I’m reinforcing grammar.
I might say to them, “Come up with a sentence to describe which piece you would like to put away next?” And if they said something like, me want the chair, I would reinforce, who wants the chair? We say, “I want the chair.” So that they would be using correct grammar. And once we got the correct grammar, yes, you may have the chair, we put the chair in.
And then I say, “Who’s left? Mama Bear.” So Mama Bear was the last one we put in the bag. And that’s how you can take a simple, familiar story and you can include speech production, some vocabulary development, some language, some sequencing, following directions into an activity.
View on YouTube at The Three Bears Lesson