Stories of The Bears - Quick PBs for Children

The versatility of The Bear Cards is of great benefit when practitioners have a few spare minutes for a quick PBs focus with an individual child or a small group. One simple activity involves showing a Bear card to the child(ren), and then giving the child a ‘feeling’ word for the bear, modelling the language; e.g. “This bear is feeling sorrowful” , or inviting the child(ren) to describe the bear using a ‘feeling’ word. The child(ren) can then be encouraged to tell a ‘story’ (even a sentence or two) for that bear. Having used this with children in many settings and contexts, the children’s stories have ranged from extremely comical to very serious. At times children begin to speak about home in a one-step removed way.

A child aged 4 said of a bear who was feeling furious with steam coming out of his head, “He’s burned his hair.”

Another 4 year old said of a bear who was feeling tearful, “He’s crying…he wants his Mum to be kind.”

A 5 year old said of a bear who was feeling worried, “He thinks someone’s knocking at the door who’s really scary or really nasty.” This child watched lots of certificate 18 horror films at home.

Another 5 year old looked at the bear who feels tearful and quickly explained, “He has no family. Or toys. Or teddies…..or nothing!” Then, the child looked directly at the bear card and pointed to it wagging a finger, and said emphatically “Stop crying!” This child recently moved to a new area, and the family was in hiding from the father who had served time for domestic violence.

A 5 year old with a bear who looked to be feeling really chuffed said, "The bear's happy because she's finished cleaning her room!"

A 4 year old looked at a bear who was feeling really excited and exclaimed, “He’s just seen his birthday presents!” How lovely

It would be really useful to build up a bank of quick and simple PB activities for children that can be done with very few resources in a couple of minutes and adapted for a range of ages.
Does anyone else have quick PBs activities they could share, that have worked successfully with young children?

Really looking forward to any new ideas added here
Judith

Judith, what fabulous examples of using this terrific resource. I hope it encourages others to try using the cards in this way. Using cards and pictures as a 'one step removed' tool to enable people to talk about and consider feelings for themselves or others is a great strategy. Again it's good to know of successes with young children.