Bear Snores On

Our activities this week were inspired by Karma Wilson's Bear Snores On.


Gathering: Teddy Bear Story Time

Each of the children brought a teddy bear from home to join in the fun!  We read bear themed stories with our teddy bears and Mommies together in the living room while we waited for all of our friends to arrive.

Circle Time

We read Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson.  This sweet book tells the story of a hibernating bear whose cave is visited by several animals seeking shelter from a snow storm.  As each animal arrives, he brings a snack to share and soon the animals are having a party inside the cave while the bear continues to sleep.  In the end he wakes up and is very sad that they had a party without him.  The animals invite bear to join in the fun and the party continues until all of the animals fall asleep, except for the bear. 

We did these fun bear themed finger plays after our story.

Hibernation Song - sung to "Are You Sleeping"

Bear is sleeping, bear is sleeping
In the cave, in the cave.
I wonder when he'll come out, I wonder when he'll come out
In the spring, In the spring.

(song found here http://stepbystepcc.com/hibernation.html)

Bear Finger Play

Here is a cave.

(Bend fingers on one hand)
Inside is a bear.
(Put thumb inside fingers.)
Now he comes out
To get some fresh air.
(Pop out thumb.)

He stays out all summer
In sunshine and heat.
He hunts in the forest
For berries to eat.
(Move thumb in a circle.)

When snow sarts to fall.
He hurries inside
His warm little cave
And there he will hide.
(Put thumb inside fingers.)

Snow covers the cave
Like a fluffy white rug.
Inside the bear sleeps
All cozy and snug.
(Place one hand over the other.)
Author Unknown


Art: Bear Cave Craft

Materials Needed: Glue, blue paper, black tree cut out, yellow moon cut out, brown half circle, googly eyes, and cotton balls

The children glued the pieces to the blue paper to create a bear peeking out of a snowy cave.

 
Our project was inspired by this idea found here at Kiboomu. 

Snack: Popcorn and Honey Nuts

The book features an impromptu potluck which included  popcorn and honey nuts, so of course we had to eat those for snack!

Activities: Parachute Games and Pretend

Teddy Bear Hibernation Parachute Game:  

We placed every one’s bears inside the parachute. (a few other animals found their way into the parachute as well). We play Parachute games with them inside.  The children had fun tossing them into the air. 

Then we let the children “hibernate” with them under a cave that the mommies made with the parachute.  

Don’t Wake Up Bears:  Our children pretended to be asleep.  Then we would say "Wake Up Bears!"   The little ones stood up with their bears and did their best GROWLS!!!  

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Today was our first Mommy and Me Book Club of the school year.  We have 7 super cute 2 year olds and their Mommies. 

Gathering Activity:  Make Brown Bear Necklace with Mommy.

Materials Needed: Pictures of Brown Bear Characters, Yarn with ends taped to prevent fraying, foam beads, crayons

We had pictures of the book characters printed on card stock and cut out with a hole punch BEFORE class. We provided multiples of each animal in case EVERYONE wanted the same one.  The children selected a picture to color.  Then with their mommies, they strung the animal on their necklace and added colorful beads.   They may or may not want to wear these.  


We found this activity and pictures of the animals to use at Making Learning Fun.  As the mommies and children finished before the others, they read stories together in the living room and waited for circle time to start. 


Circle Time:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? 

We introduced our friends and sang “Here We Are Together.” 

I selected Brown Bear, Brown Bear as our first read aloud of the year because I knew all of the children were familiar with the book.  The repetitive, sing song nature of the story and bright pictures of recognizable animals make it a perfect book for twos and threes.  The kids  and moms all read the book aloud with me!  The children were all very attentive because they were all involved in "telling the story."

After reading the story, we let the children take turns placing animals into a clank can to help retell the story.  We called one child up at a time and gave everyone two turns.  It was a great opportunity to practice waiting, taking turns, and practice saying each other's name.

 Everyone asks, “Molly, Molly what do you see?”  She selects any animal of her choice and puts it in the can.   “I see the blue horse looking at me.”    Then the next child picks up one of the animals and we ask them, “Maggie, Maggie, what do you see?”  She picks up the purple cat.  “I see the purple cat looking at me.”  

After the Clank Jar game, we closed with an alternative version of the song “Shake My Sillies Out”  

After we shake, then we “Fly” our sillies out around the room like a bird, "crawl" our sillies out on all fours like a dog, "stomp" our sillies out around like a bear, "swim: like a fish, "gallop" like a horse, "quack" like a duck.

Art Activity:Brown Bear Collage Art

We found this great art project on the Gummy Lump blog.

Materials Needed: Brown Bear Outline from the blog link above, glue, small foam brushes, 2 googly eyes per child, brown materials for collage (We used ground coffee, brown rice, brown beans, cinnamon, nutmeg, torn paper).

1-Allow each child to "paint" their bear with glue.

2-Sprinkle the materials of their choice on the bear outline to cover as much of the bear as they wish.

3-Add the googly eyes.

Snack:  Bear Bread and Fruit Salad 

One of our moms made homemade wheat bread that she baked in a bear shaped cake pan.   Another mom made a rainbow fruit salad that included the colors from our book!

Hands-On Activity:   Rainbow Rice Exploration

Our little M&Ms had a great time pouring, measuring, and scooping rainbow rice in our rice table. We included colorful scoops, balls, alphabet letters, and plastic bears. 

If you have never dyed rice before, you can find great directions on Totally Tots.   It is VERY EASY!

 

Jamberry by Bruce Degen

Gathering Activity: Strawberry Streamers

Materials Needed: sturdy paper plate, variety of colored streamers cut into lengths, clip art of large strawberry coloring sheet, crayons, glue

Directions: Allow the children to color their strawberries.  Then glue streamers onto the bottom of the paper plate, so that they hang down from the plate.  Glue colored strawberry on top.  Allow to dry before use.

Circle Time:   Jamberry by Bruce Degen

 Jamberry is a beautiful picture book which tells the story of a young boy and his friend, the bear, who go on an adventure picking berries.  It is a nonsensical rhyming story with a fun rhythm that rolls off the tongue.  My own children ask me to read it several times in one sitting.  Each page is rich with humorous details.  
 
After reading the book, we sang our own version of "One little, two little, three little berries..."

Outside Activity: Strawberry Picking

A few weeks ago, we had planted strawberry plants in our garden.  Today it was time to harvest them!

Inside Activity and Snack: Making Freezer Jam 

We allowed the children to make freezer jam using the strawberries from the garden (plus a few additional berries from the local strawberry patch).  The children were each given a jar to take home.  After making the jam, we sampled several kinds of berries that we had read about in the story.   For directions, see the back of your freezer jam packet.

Dancing with our Streamers

In the book, the characters dance with streamers in strawberry fields.  Our little ones danced with their streamers to fun music.  It was hard to catch the action with my camera!

***We had some friends this week who were unable to come, so we had only 3 boys.

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

Gathering Activity: We read books together about Bears.

Circle Time: We read The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood.  We did finger plays and sang songs about mice and bears.


Art Activity: Cute as a Button Strawberries
Materials Needed: strawberry shape cut out of poster board , buttons, and green foam piece cut into shape of strawberry topper, glue, foam paint brushes

Directions: Paint the strawberry shapes red.  Glue on buttons and foam topper.  Allow to dry.

Snack: Red Ripe Strawberries and Cinnamon Bread Bears 

Playtime Activity:

Strawberry Scented Playdough (We tripled this recipe, and made ahead of time, for our 7 kids).

We had free exploration with cookie cutters and play dough tools.