Continuing with the B themed lessons, we studied BEARS two weeks ago. (I'm a tad behind with these posts -- hoping to catch up real soon.)Learning about bears was SUPER fun! Here's the highlight reel:
- Bear Den. On Monday, we read about bears and their dens. And then we made one! We built a makeshift den in our living room by repurposing a wooden indoor house Matt had constructed for the kids to play in on rainy days. We put blankets on top, nestled it next to the couch, and filled it with all the kids' stuffed animal bears. We also ate our bear-y good snack there and read books inside the cozy den.
- Teddy Bear Day. We focused on the three bears which live in North America for our week's studies. And then to incorporate a bit of history and fun we read about Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and how he inspired the first teddy bear toy. We read lots of teddy bear books (including the classic Teddy Bear Picnic), had a teddy bear picnic with teddy bear shaped sugar cookies (which Chloe rolled and cut out almost all by herself -- nice but VERY messy), and we did the interactive "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" action rhyme. Then I helped Chloe with a simple teddy bear sewing project. We still haven't stuffed or finished the little teddy because he's mysteriously disappeared somewhere in our cluttery abode.
- Bear Class. Friday I took the kids to a short preschool level class on bears at a local nature center. The kids got to see lots of real bear things including bear claws, skulls, and a skin. And it was fun for me to see Chloe interacting in a little class. At first she had that zoned out look but after awhile she was raising her hand and answering questions.
- Gummy Bear Math. Who knew that buying a package of gummy bears would yield so much math?!? First we opened the pack and dumped it out on the table. We sorted the bears into piles based on color. Then I led Chloe to estimate which group had the most and which had the least. Clive was content to just line up the bears -- good counting practice for him! Next we counted how many bears were actually in each color group and then Chloe colored that number on a graph (linked here). Then I crafted simple math problems for Chloe and Clive in turn. When they got the answer correct, they were rewarded with, what else, gummy bears! After the gummy bear consumption, I put all the remaining bears in a jar (counting them as I went). We put the jar on display and at dinner time every one (except me of course since I knew the answer) guessed how many bears were in the jar. Chloe out-guessed Matt and came the closest! What'd she win? A handful of gummy bears. :)
- Bear themed snacks. Rice cakes with bear faces, bear biscuits, english muffin bear face pizzas, bear-shaped sugar cookies, gummy bears. Bears are yummy. Bonus was that my independent Chloe-girl did ALL the rolling and cutting of the bear cookies. And though she left a mess of flour on the kitchen floor, her independent baking gave me a luscious 30 minutes of quiet time while she occupied herself with a valuable activity. That's worth more than a few minutes of sweeping in my book!
- Blubber demonstration. To show the kiddos how bears use thick layers of fat to keep them warm (polar bears notably), we crafted a blubber glove. I put about 1 cup of shortening in a 1-gallon ziploc bag. After securing that tightly, I squished it flat and put it into a second 1-gallon ziploc fashioning a blubber mitten (better instructions here). I had the kids touch some frozen applesauce with their bare hands. Cold stuff. With the blubber mitten on you couldn't even feel it! Point made! And hopefully remembered.
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