"Goldilocks & The Three Bears" is one of our favourite books. When we read the book together Minnie loves to join in with the repeated refrains, & gets so excited when the bears return to their house with Goldilocks still inside! This is the version we have been reading together I've used story sacks at school & wanted to create something similar for Minnie, so with a little hunt around the house I found some props to add to our 'Story Box'! Goldilocks & The Three Bears Story Box The Three Bears 3 blankets to symbolise beds (Minnie's dolls only had pink blankets!) 3 bowls & spoons to symbolise the bowls of porridge This size box was perfect for storage & easy for Minnie to tidy away at the end of the day. I left the story box with the book for Minnie to find. She was so excited to discover it! She spread the items over the floor, & with a little help from me, she managed to match the bears to the different sized objects. Baby bear was soon tucking into his small bowl of porridge! Minnie then ran into the kitchen & found 3 different sized cups for the bears. She came back shouting: "Cup tea please!" The bears were given the appropriate cups & were then joined by some bear friends for a tea party! Minnie acted out parts of the story with the bears & repeatedly used the refrains; "Who's been eating my porridge?" & "Who's been sleeping in my bed?" She also used; "Too big", "Too small" & "Just right" during her play, & made me smile when she added "nice" every time Goldilocks found an item belonging to baby bear. She changed the end of the story slightly, & instead of Goldilocks running away when the bears discovered her, Goldilocks in Minnie's version of the story said (& signed) "Sorry bear, sorry" to baby bear. So cute! The bears & props were played with most of the afternoon & I was so fascinated to watch Minnie interacting with them all. It's amazing how much of the text she had remembered & great to observe her recognition of shapes & sizes of objects. This simple activity encourages, language development, creativity, imagination, recall & recognition skills, maths skills (size & number), emotional & social development (as different scenarios are explored) & offers open-ended play too!