Teddy Bears

     Most of my Kindergarten teaching centers around themes.  I find themes, besides being familiar and fun, provide us with many opportunities for learning.  For the last couple of weeks, our theme has been Teddy Bears.  Using bears, we practiced colors, directional words, patterns and counting.

    The unit was started by reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. We sequenced the characters in the book using magnet pieces.  We cut and colored our own pieces and placed them in a bag to keep so we could retell the story at home.  The most fun was chanting the story frame using the students' names.  "Mary, Mary, who do you see?"  "I see Johnny looking at me."

     Using circles, we learned how to draw a bear.  Drawing builds confidence while improving fine motor muscles.

     We learned our first nursery rhyme of the year - Fuzzy Wuzzy.

     Our color word for the month of September is brown.  We listed things that are brown and learned a song that helps us to spell the word.

     The first letter to come to class was the letter B. Bubba Bear brought the letter.  We worked very hard all week to identify words that started with a B sound.  We practiced writing both the capital and small letters.  When forming our letters, we always start at the top and "dive down".

     We made Bubba Bear out of a capital B.  We made another bear using B items - buttons, beans and bows.  And one more bear we made was a 5 senses bear.  After learning about our sense of sight, hearing, tasting, feeling and smelling, we created this bear.  (Growing Kinders blog)

     We couldn't have a bear theme without reading Goldilocks and The Three Bears.   We read different versions of the story and retold the story using magnets, drawings, and acting.  The concept of big, medium and large was reinforced by cutting and pasting a matrix using chairs, bowls and beds of Papa, Mama and Baby Bear.

     A Kindergarten standard is to distinguish fact from fiction.  We used the bears to help us with this standard.  Discussing the differences from real bears and story book bears was quite interesting.  Our class participated in a Family Project to find three facts about bears, write them down using a source at home and return our findings to school.  

     We concluded our bear theme with a Teddy Bear picnic.  Students brought their bear to school for the day, and the bears participated in many activities during the day with us.  This little bear was so active that she had to visit the nurses office and receive stitches for a torn seam.

     At the end of the day was our picnic.  We started by singing and acting out Dr. Jean's Cool Bear Hunt.  Then we took our bears and went on a honey hunt around the room.  Baggies with Honey Comb cereal were hidden around the room.  The students and their bear had to find their honey and gather together outside for the Teddy Bear picnic.  At the picnic, we had our Honey Comb, teddy grams and glasses of milk.

     Pictures were taken of each student holding their bear.  I will make a class book with the pictures and frame, "I see Jenna with her bear."

     Tomorrow is Pocket Day!