This puzzle is so many things wrapped into one little package! Clothing vocabulary, body parts, colors, emotions, pronouns, possessive -s, eliciting core language to request, and expanding utterances. It can be an activity all by itself, or you can use it as a motivator to practice other target skills.
As a stand-alone activity, I typically tie it in with seasons/weather or fairy tales. We dress the bears appropriately for the season or refer to them as "Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear" (*great for reduplicated syllables and bilabials).
Core language targets include your turn/my turn, want, more, on/off, and yes/no. For students at the one-word/sign utterance level, it's great for building longer utterances. For example, when the child says/signs, "shoes," you can elicit whose shoes. Once the child has indicated which bear, then you can lay out the six options and ask what color shoes. After the child selects a color, you can model and hopefully prompt a 3-word/sign utterance ("Baby's red shoes."). Once the child has mastered the basics (shoes, shirt, pants), you can start demonstrating more specific and varied vocabulary (sandals/slippers/boots, pajamas, suit, pant vs. shorts, apron, sweater, etc.).
The "Baby's red shoes" highlights that this activity has both possessive -s and plural -s embedded. These are typically challenging for students with hearing loss. They are difficult to perceive acoustically, particularly when embedded in running speech. They are also not marked in ASL the same way we mark it in spoken English. This activity is a great way to highlight and practice these morphological markers.
Of course, my favorite part is the emotions. I label them in speech and sign, make the corresponding facial expression, and, equally important, model the intonation. This is another important part of auditory skill development for a student with hearing loss.
As a motivator, I typically have the child practice their target skill (ex. word final /k/, present progressive -ing) and then they earn a piece of the puzzle. It's just a great way to make drill-based activities more inviting and engaging.
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