B is for Bear

This week we focused are studies on Bears, the letter B and the color brown.

*We filled our sensory table with hazelnut coffee and the children enjoyed the smell and feel of the material while playing with tiny tea sets, baskets and bears.
*We danced and sang with our stuffies and played games to recognize the B sound in the beginning of words
* We sang color recognition songs
* We created a web for things that are brown.
* We made predictions for what would happen to a gummy bear if we placed it in water and another one in salt water.
* We cut, decorated and painted bears with cinnamon infused paint.
* We created pretend cookies and cakes with pumpkin spice scented playdough.
* We graphed our bears into three categories -- small, medium and large
* We had picnics with our stuffies...filling baskets with foods from our dramatic play kitchen
* We painted with bubbles
* We journaled about our stuffies
* We had stuffy races using foam squares and dice
* We had puppet shows with animals that start with the letter B (a bat, a bunny and a bear)
* We created picnic scenes with stickers and paper
* We practiced counting using coffee beans and bear playing cards
* We created bears by assembling shapes together
* We took turns smelling containers of "brown things"  -- spices/flavorings (vanilla, cumin cocoa and more) and made guesses about them.

This week we read:
Teddy Bear Picnic by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Please Do Feed the Bears by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

A full-sensory experience - the children enjoyed the feel and smell of hazelnut coffee in our sensory table.

They played with tiny bears and tea party ware.

The children enjoyed using the eensy weeny spoons to scoop tiny portions of coffee into the little baskets and cups.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear movement activity

Hard at work - cutting out a large teddy bear shape.

Cutting with scissors is tricky and can be frustrating at times. In the classroom we remind the students to have their "thumbs up!" when cutting with scissors.

After cutting out their bears - they painted them with cinnamon infused paint and decorated them as they pleased.

Stuffy races

Picnic fun

We had puppet shows with animals that start with the letter B - a bat, a bear and a bunny!

We graphed our bears and stuffies -- small, medium and large.

Counting out coffee beans to match with the corresponding bear

Sorting/color recognition. On top of each "cave" was the name of the color that each bear lived.

We cut out bear shapes and baked cookies and cakes with our pumpkin spiced playdough

We talked about shapes and how we might use them to create our own bears.

We talked about shapes and how we could use them to create a bear.

Sorting B words from those which do not begin with the letter B.

We made predictions about what would happen if we put a gummy bear in water.

Creating teddy bear picnic scenes.fine motor practice pulling off stickers

What's that smell?

bubble painting

We sang Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer in music

Their guesses are creative and sometimes even correct. The chart is hanging outside our classroom. A fun read.