A drama workshop for young children – Goldilocks and the Three Bears

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This Goldilocks and the Three Bears workshop is from “Drama Workshops for Young Children” by Julie Meighan. This book contains 10 drama workshops for young children. These fun-to-use and easy-to-follow workshops are designed for children between the ages of 3 and 7. The workshops are based on children’s stories. Each story is introduced at the beginning of each workshop through a movement story or a play. The definition and aim of each drama strategy used are outlined in the drama strategy glossary at the beginning of the book. The aims of these drama workshops are to

Promote children’s self-regulation

Develop children’s language and communication skills

Teach children conflict resolution

Relieve children’s emotional tension

Allow children to develop a sense of ownership.

Promote children’s social interaction skills

Empower children

 Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Each child finds a space and sits down. Each child or a group of children are assigned a specific word and a corresponding action. The narrator/teacher reads the story aloud, and when the children hear their word, they must jump up and do their actions. The words are in bold to assist the teacher/narrator.

Movement: Action/sound.

Goldilocks: Skip around the space.

Bear/Bears: Walk slowly and growl.

Bowl/Bowls: Clasp fingers together and stick out arms to make a round shape.

Porridge: Wiggle body up and down.

Chair/s: Squat down and stick out arms.

Bed/s: Lie straight on the floor.

First: Hold up one finger.

Second: Hold up two fingers.

Third: Hold up three fingers.

Narrator: Once upon a time, there was a girl called Goldilocks. One day, she decided to go for a walk in the woods. Soon, she became tired. She saw a little cottage in the woods. She knocked, but there was no answer, so she decided to go inside and rest.

At the table in the kitchen, there were three bowls of porridge. Goldilocks was hungry. She tasted the porridge from the first bowl.

“This porridge is too hot!” she exclaimed.

So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl.

“This porridge is too cold,” she said.

So, she tasted the third bowl of porridge.

“Ahhh, this porridge is just right,” she said happily, and she ate it all up.

After she’d eaten the three bears’ breakfasts, she decided she was feeling a little tired. So, she walked into the living room, where she saw three chairs. Goldilocks sat in the first chair to rest her feet.

“This chair is too big!” she exclaimed.

So, she sat in the second chair.

“This chair is too big, too!” she whined.

So, she tried the third and smallest chair.

“Ahhh, this chair is just right,” she sighed. But just as she settled down into the chair to rest, it broke into pieces!

Goldilocks was very tired by this time, so she went upstairs to the bedroom. She lay down in the first bed, but it was too hard. Then she lay in the second bed, but it was too soft. Then she lay down in the third bed, and it was just right. Goldilocks fell asleep.

As she was sleeping, the three bears came home.

“Someone’s been eating my porridge,” growled Papa bear.

“Someone’s been eating my porridge,” said Mama bear.

“Someone’s been eating my porridge, and they ate it all up!” cried Baby bear.

“Someone’s been sitting in my chair,” growled Papa bear.

“Someone’s been sitting in my chair,” said Mama bear.

“Someone’s been sitting in my chair, and they’ve broken it all to pieces,” cried Baby bear.

They decided to look around some more, and when they got upstairs to the bedroom, Papa bear growled, “Someone’s been sleeping in my bed,”

“Someone’s been sleeping in my bed, too,” said Mama bear

“Someone’s been sleeping in my bed, and she’s still there!” exclaimed Baby bear.

Just then, Goldilocks woke up and saw the three bears. She screamed, “Help!” And she jumped up and ran out of the room. Goldilocks ran down the stairs, opened the door, and ran away into the woods. And Goldilocks never returned to the home of the three bears.

More movement stories can be found here and here.

Introduction: Show the children pictures. Tell them there are 8 different types of bears. There are eight species in the bear family: Asiatic Black Bear, Brown Bear, North American Black Bear, Panda Bear, Polar Bear, Sloth Bear, Spectacled Bear, and the Sun Bear.

Warm-up: The warm-up is a movement activity called “Does a Bear Live in the Woods?”

A clear space is needed. The teacher explains to the class that they must lie down on the ground when they come across a bear in the woods and keep very still. One child volunteers to be the bear. The bear goes to one end of the clear space and turns his/her back on the rest of the class. All the other children try to sneak up behind the bear. When the bear turns around, all the children must lie very still on the ground. If the bear sees you moving, s/he pulls you away to join him/her. Then there are two bears. Eventually, all the children are caught moving and become bears.

Voice production: Tell the children that they are going to explore different voices. We need to change our voices to show different emotions or to become different characters.

Get the group to repeat the following lines together in their normal voices:

Who has been sitting in my chair?

Who has eating my porridge?

Who has been sleeping in my bed?

Now, get the children to say the lines in the following ways:

Loud

Quiet

Fast

Slow

Sad

Happy

Angry

Excited

Surprised

Frightened

Annoyed

Role-play: “Now we are going to warm up our bodies. Everyone find a space and walk around the room as yourself. When I say freeze, I will call out different ways of walking….

Walk as

Papa bear

Mama bear

Baby bear

Goldilocks

Grumpy Papa bear

Kind Mama bear

Happy Baby bear

Surprised Goldilocks

Sculpting: Divide the class into pairs: one person is the sculptor the other is the clay. Get the sculptor to mould the clay into…

How did Goldilocks feel when the bears found her?

How did Baby bear feel when he saw that his porridge had been eaten?

How did Mama bear feel when she saw that someone had been sleeping in her bed?

How did Papa bear feel when he saw Goldilocks sleeping in the bed?

It can be abstract. The teacher/children look at each sculpture and guess how the characters are feeling.

Movement poem: Teach the children the following poem and actions.

When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears (the children walk on the spot), oh, what did her blue eyes see? (The children point to their eyes.)

A bowl that was huge and a bowl that was small and a bowl that was tiny and that was all. (Children make increasingly smaller shapes with their arms to represent each bowl.) And she counted them – one, two, three! (They use one finger to point as if counting each bowl.)

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears (walk on the spot), oh, what did her blue eyes see? (Point to their eyes.)

A chair that was huge and a chair that was small, and a chair that was tiny and that was all. (Use hands to show the different heights and the size of each chair, getting smaller all the time.) And she counted them – one, two, three! (Use their fingers to point, as if counting each chair.)

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears (walk on the spot), oh, what did her blue eyes see? (Point to their eyes.)

A bed that was huge and a bed that was small and a bed that was tiny and that was all. (Use their hands to show the increasingly smaller length and size of each bed.) And she counted them – one, two, three! (Use their fingers to point, as if counting each bed.)

When Goldilocks went to the house of the bears (walk on the spot), oh, what did her blue eyes see? (Point to their eyes.)

A bear that was huge and a bear that was small and a bear that was tiny and that was all. (Use hands to show the increasingly smaller height and size of each bear.)

Closure/the bears are coming: The teacher tells the children, “Before we had the internet, cars, computers, trains, planes, washing machines, and hoovers, people had to chop wood. Talk about the type of jobs people did in the olden days.” All the children must find some physical action, based on an old-fashioned job like wood chopping, hunting, or washing clothes, and begin doing this action somewhere in the room. The teacher/volunteer leaves the room momentarily and returns as the bear. Once the bear arrives, the children must freeze where they are, and the bear must try to make the other children laugh. If a child laughs, they become a bear, and the bears work together until they have made everyone laugh. The bears cannot touch the frozen children!