Is Goldilocks too young for year 1?

[teacherspet33]

Because I think it is? Even my daughter feels she isn't learning anything from the "topic". Not starting spelling until post Xmas and focusing on counting to 20! It all seems very unchallenging and simple. Are my expectations too high?

My ds did Goldilocks in YR and they did loads with it. I remember doing fairy tales in secondary school (academically selective, they weren't dumbing down whilst the rest of the country studied of mice and men).

"My dd doesn't know what she's learning and is finding it a bit dull as she perceives Goldilocks to be a book for children younger than she is."

Well, that is because she is only little and doesn't understand much about literature yet. Up to you to explain that fairy stories are meant for all ages (and were certainly told that way) and that you never grow too old for a good story.

at lovely use of foci

Ds (Y2) still loves Goldilocks, and other classic tales, and we can get a lot out of it - there's a pretty complex moral question at the heart of that story imo - who is the 'goody', really? I also studied fairy tale structures/children's lit at uni ... the basic tale formats can be interpreted at any age.

And, as others have said, this is, I assume, a topic which they will use as a springboard for learning ... numeracy: thinking about scale and amounts (small, medium, big ito volume, size etc; measuring vs estimating; art/design/technology: comparing different textures/styles (what would be the difference be between the diff chairs/beds); literacy: what would the bears side of the story be? etc etc etc

And we went to see a fabulous Goldilocks at the theatre last year (ds was in Y1 )

I would agree that counting to 20 sounds at the basic end of my expectations.

My DD is in year two at a very academic prep and they are doing Jack and the Beanstalk! It depends on how they use the story...it's a base for lots of other learning experiences.

My DD hs had to rewrite it in a different way...with a new ending, and also fnd other words within the word Beanstalk...I am sure your DD's teacher will get a lot ou of it for them.

HAve you read her the Revolting Rhymes version yet? That might put a new aspect on the story.

Dd is in Yr2 and they have been rewriting the Gingerbread Man and having great fun doing so. The kids ending to the stories always crack me up.

^teacherspet33 Fri 01-Oct-10 21:56:46
she perceives Goldilocks to be a book for children younger than she is.^
Tell her the truth it was originally written for adults and when the bears returned they tore her to pieces and ate her [smile[

Gosh I find it a bit depressing that you and your 5/6 year old think she is too old for Goldilocks.
It will have been picked because it is a story that hopefully most of the children will know very well.
Counting to 20 is just part of it. It will be counting forwards and backwards, one more, one less, pairs of numbers and number bonds to make the numbers to 20 etc etc.
There are probably 30 children in that class and the teacher will be trying to plan and differentiate to suit them all. Some certainly won't be able to count to 10 consistently.

Why is it depressing? I have read to my daughter since she was about 1...Goldilocks featured a lot. Now she likes things like famous five, secret seven, The borrowers etc. It's natural progression isn't it?

It's nice to hear what she may be doing with the story in class...she actually told me today she had to think up a new "baddy" for the story which is great.
I really don't think my daughter is missing out due to her loss of interest in some fairytales!

No it isn't natural progression teacherspet33 sorry but you seem to be confusing the ability to read and understand more difficult texts with purpose.

I'm not saying she can read those books, those are the types of stories she likes to listen to. She would not choose Goldilocks. Until people here had given me some kind of idea what they would be doing with this story it just seemed to me that it was a fairly young theme....However I am happy to stand corrected and I'm sure they are doing some interesting work with the story.

The Uses of Enchantment the meaning and importance of fairy tales

Goldilocks

Re learning about numbers up to 20

DD2 s Y1 class did a guess the sweets in teh jar competition.There were 120 she won with guessing 63! The majority of the class guessed less than 20!So I think that goes to prove the point that, although they may be able to add, count and subtract up to 20, most of them don't have a clue what 20 objects look like!

My eight year old enjoys a steady diet of Joseph Jacobs and Andrew Lang's fairy tales. We read him one most nights and they are cracking good yarns. Both DH and I have been caught reading them with no children in sight!

teacherspet33 Sat 02-Oct-10 18:00:22
"Why is it depressing? I have read to my daughter since she was about 1...Goldilocks featured a lot. Now she likes things like famous five, secret seven, The borrowers etc. It's natural progression isn't it?"

Not at all natural progression if by that you think you have to stop reading something good to move on. All the people I know who are really good at literature and really into literature appreciate the old alongside the new, the simple (if well told) alongside the more complex. The ones who think you have to stick to a certain type of books depending on your stage of progression often give up reading in their mid-teens because the books belonging to that supposed "stage" are so dreary. Several friends of dd have fallen into this category. The ones who carry on are the ones who are willing to experiment and read both books that are too "young" and books that are too "old" for them.

As I said, my dd was reading Thackeray's Vanity Fair (full version) and Noel Streatfield's Ballet Shoes in the same week (she was 12). A year later, she has read pretty well all of Jane Austen, a fair bit of Dickens, most of the Brontes' novels, some Wilkie Collins- but she still regularly rereads When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, because she knows a good book when she sees one. I also like to reread The Borrowers and The Three Musketeers as a change from medieval theology.

Goldilocks is no more a young theme than the themes from the Greek legends which I spent last semester exploring with undergraduates. Throughough the centuries, these stories have been enjoyed by adults and children alike: it is only the last few decades that have seen the idea that you need to show your development in some sort of set "progression". I blame the ORT (though still admitting to a sneaking fondness for Kipper's gran).

If you feel your dd can go beyond the simple tale, then why not ask her to do some of the following:

illustrate it (always makes you think of a story more in depth)

turn it into a play

think about how the story is told, e.g. the role of the number three- let her compare with other stories she knows and see how it works and what it does to the reader

why does the story end the way it does, tell her about the alternative ending, why does she think this has been changed

and let her practise reading it aloud as well as she possibly can: good performance skills are very important later in life, and Goldilocks is very good for voice practice

fwiw when your dd has grown a little older and more mature, assuming she is still into books, she is likely to look back on this and find that The Secret Five is in many ways far more babyish than the tale of Goldilocks