Care & Grow

Little Play Garden · Updated October 13, 2026

Carry an apple, cut it, stir the fruit, then choose who to serve. In Little Bear’s Kitchen, a dish changes from ingredients into a decorated meal for a woodland guest. This guide follows the Fruit bowl, including button alternatives when dragging is awkward. It is pretend cooking on screen, not a real recipe or cooking procedure.

Begin with Guided and just one dish

Choose “Guided” at the top, open “Choose a recipe” and select “Fruit bowl”. If that recipe is already on screen, you can begin there. Choose Bunny from the guest portraits. The recipe strip shows three ingredients: Apple, Banana and Strawberry.

Press “Try the sound” if you want sound effects. Pictures, step labels and progress displays also let you play without sound. There is no time limit. A grown-up can read the buttons while the child chooses ingredients or decorations.

Make a Fruit bowl in six steps

1. Carry the ingredients to the tray. Tap Apple on the shelf, then the tray labelled “Bring ingredients here”. Repeat with Banana and Strawberry. You can also drag each ingredient straight to the tray. Tapping an ingredient alone selects it; the tap alternative is a pair of actions: ingredient, then tray.
2. Cut each fruit. Swipe along or across the line on the fruit. In Guided, each fruit has one cutting line. Pressing “Make one cut” once is another way to prepare it. Prepare Apple, Banana and Strawberry to reach the stirring step.
3. Watch the mixing progress. Draw circles inside the bowl, a little away from its centre. Alternatively, press “Give it a stir” five times from an unmixed bowl to reach 100% and continue. You can lift your finger partway through and ask, “How much has mixed so far?” while looking at the progress.
4. Transfer the fruit. Press “Bring it to the bowl”. This recipe has no heating or flipping step. The next screen lets you choose decorations.
5. Decorate your dish. Choose a Strawberry, Banana or Apple topping, then tap inside the plate, or drag a topping onto it. “Add to the centre” is an alternative if placing it is difficult. You can add up to six toppings. “Undo topping” removes the last one. Serving without any topping is also allowed.
6. Serve your guest. Press “Serve to your guest!” or drag the plate to the guest. Completing the dish updates its made count and keeps this decoration in the cookbook. If a saving warning appears, the record may not remain after you close the page.

What changes with the difficulty?

• Guided: the next ingredient is highlighted, and fruit has one cutting line. Use it to try the controls for the first time.
• Independent: the required ingredients stay the same, but the next ingredient is not highlighted. Fruit has three separate cutting lines to complete.
• Recipe order: carry ingredients in the recipe strip’s left-to-right order. For the Fruit bowl, that is Apple, Banana, then Strawberry. Fruit also has three cutting lines.

Changing difficulty restarts the current dish at ingredient selection. Completed cookbook records remain. Choose the setting before cooking: “Would you like fewer clues, or the same setting with a new decoration?”

Four guests and twelve recipes

The guests are Bunny, Fox, Cat and Squirrel. Tapping a guest portrait changes the recipient while keeping your current dish. “A guest’s request” selects a recipe for that guest and restarts ingredient selection, so use it before cooking when you want to follow an order. You can also serve a guest a finished dish other than their requested recipe.

The twelve recipes are Fruit bowl, Carrot soup, Fruit toast, Pancakes, Berry smoothie, French toast, Apple tart, Berry milk pudding, Banana bread, Strawberry cake, Carrot muffins and Fluffy omelette. Different recipes use actions such as pouring, cracking an egg, heating, flipping or stacking. On a holding step, releasing stops the action; short button taps also let you progress.

After serving, “Make it again” restarts the same recipe. “Next request” moves to the next guest and chooses that guest’s recipe. You do not need to complete all twelve in one sitting. Making a favourite dish again is another way to play.

Look back in your cookbook

“My cookbook” shows the twelve recipes, their made counts and the guest and decorations from the last serving of each recipe. Making the same recipe again replaces its pictured decoration with the newest one; it does not keep a separate album of every version. “Make this” begins that recipe from ingredient selection.

Complete two different recipes to unlock Sage cloth, five for Flower cloth and nine for Star cloth. Wooden table is available from the start. Repeating the Fruit bowl adds to its made count but still counts as one recipe type. Choose an available cloth in the cookbook, then return to cooking to see it.

If a step seems stuck

• An ingredient will not go in: check that its picture is in the recipe strip. If you only selected it, tap the tray next. In Recipe order, use the leftmost ingredient that has not been carried yet.
• Cutting does not continue: choose a line without a completed check mark. “Make one cut” completes the next remaining line.
• Mixing progress stays still: circle around the centre rather than moving only in the middle. Try “Give it a stir” before taking over the child’s hand movement.
• A topping will not stay: place it near the middle of the plate or use “Add to the centre”. With six toppings already placed, use “Undo topping” to make room.
• The plate will not reach the guest: check that you have reached the decorating step, then press “Serve to your guest!” A missed drag does not mean you need to cook the dish again.

Stopping, restarting and clearing records

There is no separate pause button. Release a hold to stop its progress. To abandon a drag, release outside its tray, plate or guest target; that move will not be applied. Moving to another tab or window also cancels an active hold. You can return to the current dish while the page stays open, but closing or reloading the page restarts an unfinished dish.

“Restart this recipe” at the top discards the current ingredients, cooking and decoration, then restarts the same dish. It keeps completed cookbook and table records. Inside the cookbook, open “For grown-ups & reset” and choose “Reset the recipe book” for a confirmation. “Clear records” removes recipe counts, saved decorations, guest and table records, and also restarts the current dish. Choose “Cancel” to leave them alone.

Completed records are kept in this browser. They do not transfer to another browser or device. You can keep playing if “Saving is unavailable” appears, but records may not remain after closing the page. See our saving help for further checks.

Continue with a paper fruit café

Draw apples, bananas and strawberries on paper, tear them into small pieces and arrange them in an empty bowl or on a paper plate. One person cooks and the other is a guest: “One apple and two strawberries, please.” Recreate the screen decoration or invent a new paper dish. Finish by showing each other a favourite decoration; one dish can be enough for today.

These are suggestions for shared play, not promises about learning outcomes. A grown-up can handle reading or controls, and you can stop whenever you wish.