A week (or more) of Grizzly Bears!

On Friday I posted a synopsis of how I come up with a week of lessons on different topics. This is what I decided to cover/review this week:
Theme: Bears
Vocab word: hibernate
Nursery Rhyme: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Number:5
Color: Brown
Fiction Story: Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Letter/sound: Bb
Math skills covered: counting, sorting, graphing
Gross Motor: Crawling like a bear for Hide-and-seek
Life Skill: manners

Day 1:
We started off the week reading a book, starting with the non-fiction book I'd chosen. (I'd checked out both a fiction and non-fiction book about bears. My fiction choice was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. ) We read the book very slowly, going over each detail. We talked about what they eat, where they live, hibernation, homes, coverings and other physical features, and habits. I taught her the rhyme "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear". We counted to 5.

Following this activity we learned about the letter B. I'd printed off a few different B activities from First School to make it a little easier to start. I let her glue buttons to the B on the first page.

Day 2:

We reread the non-fiction book about Grizzly bears. This time I asked her questions as I read, like "What do bears do when winter comes? Do bears like to be alone?" etc. Then we did another "Bb" paper.
Review rhyme and #5.

Math/Snack: I bought a box of Teddy Grahams and would hand her a small pile. I then asked to her count how many I'd given her. It's great practice to move the bears as they count to keep from counting the same bears over and over. At the end she got to eat a few.




Day 3: Reread non-fiction. Read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Make the letter B with Do-A-Dot markers.



Math: I printed off a gummy bear graph and she sorted gummy bears by color and then graphed them. (and then eat some, of course!)

We practiced making the letter Bb and making circles, our shape of the week. We then used pre-cut circles to make a bear face, like shown on this site. I just made my own template. Then she sponge painted it brown.

Day 4: Review Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. Count to 5.

We made bear paws for breakfast. I confess that I know that grizzly bears have 5 toes, but they look better w/ 4 when you bake them. :) So, some have 5 and some have 4. Bear paws: refrigerated biscuit dough, roll into the paw shape, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, bake as directed. Easy!

We made bear ears (headband and taped on construction paper ears) and played hide-and-seek w/ berries and bugs (play food and plastic bugs). She had to walk like a bear and dig for her bugs. This is a great activity to do at night as a family. Her dad really got into it and made a little den for her. The growls and grunts were adorable. Even my 18 month old wore bear ears and played.

Math: Sort teddy grahams into piles of 5, since 5 (the # of claws on a paw) was our number of the week.

Reread Goldilocks and talked about manners.

Day 5: Dad got really into the bear talks, too. So while at work her made her a bear claw (life sized) out of wood. Now when she plays hide-and-seek as a bear, she wears her ears and her claw. :)

Oh, and I made porridge for breakfast. Yum! Both girls cleaned their plates. Charis wanted to go for a walk to let it cool, true to story.

As a review, I printed off a bunch of bear pictures from Google Images and typed in what I needed (bear hibernating, bear catching salmon, bear paw with claws, etc). We made her own bear book with easy to read sentences so she can "read" it on her own.

EX:

Bears have big claws.

Our sentences included things like: Bears eat fish. Bears eat rabbits. Bears eat plants. This is a bear cub. Bears hibernate (one sentence per page).
We made the book out of construction paper and just stapled it together.

Hope that helps! Have fun teaching and learning about bears together! I just wish our zoo had bears...it would have rounded out a good week perfectly!