Bear Picnic!

Bear Picnic Day!

Daily Question:  Hip Hip Hooray!  It's Bear Picnic Day.  Are you excited?

Gathering Activity and Introductions:  Bean bag chairs with many Bear books preschoolers could "read" to their bears this morning.  We had fun learning about our bears (names, types, etc.)  We also enjoyed reading aloud Bear Snores On and The Three Bears.

Bear Facts (Science):  We learned all about bears today.  We learned that bears live on almost all of the continents.  There are many different varieties of bears: brown bear, black bear, polar bear, panda bears, sun bear (Malaysia), etc.  Bears eat many different foods: fish, honey, berries, grubs, ants, insects, and people food too (and so campers need to take care of their food and put it away from hungry bears).  Bears are different sizes and colors and sometimes a bear's fun helps it in it's environment...short hair for bears in warm humid climates and long hair for bears that live in coldren climates.  White fur  for those that live in the snow, etc.  We also saw a number or bear dens and talked briefly about "hibernation."

We read some great stories together, including We're going on a Bear Hunt.  Then we went on a bear hunt with our bear and stuffed animal friends and our snack bags.

Bear Hunt and Picnic:  We're Going on a Bear Hunt...

 We're gonna catch a big one!

 It's a beautiful (cold) day!

 We're not scared!

 Bear spotting--maybe up a tree ahead!

Looking for bears in the "forrest."

 

Picnic Time!

 

 Story Time:  My Friend Bear (or It's The Bear)

Our Bear Bunch!

Bb Circle Time and Show N' Teach:

B the Bear blows bright blue bubbles...bah, bah, bah 

is the sound she makes while blowing upon her bubble blower.

Show N' Teach:
Dade's Spider Bouncing Ball

Ethan & Kayson's Batman toys

 Brody's Blue Tickets

 B the Bear Activity Page:

 

Bear Songs:

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Author: Unknown
Teddy bear, teddy bear,
Turn around.
Teddy bear, teddy bear,
Touch the ground.
Teddy bear, teddy bear,
Shine your shoes.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, Skidoo.

Teddy bear, teddy bear,
Go upstairs.
Teddy bear, teddy bear,
Say your prayers.
Teddy bear, teddy bear,
Turn out the light.
Teddy bear, teddy bear,
Say good night.

The Bear Went Over the Mountain
Author: Unknown
Tune: For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
The bear went over the mountain,
The bear went over the mountain,
The bear went over the mountain,
To see what he could see

To see what he could see,
To see what he could see

The other side of the mountain,
The other side of the mountain,
The other side of the mountain,
Was all that he could see

Was all that he could see,
Was all that he could see,
The other side of the mountain,
Was all that he could see.
 
We're Going On A Bear Hunt
(Children repeat each line after adult.)
We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh oh!
Grass,
Long, wavy, grass.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Swishy swashy, swishy swashy.
We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh oh!
Mud,
Thick, oozy mud.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Squelch squelch, squelch squelch
We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh oh!
A river,
A deep, cold river.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Splish splosh, splish splosh.
We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh oh!
A forest,
A big, dark forest.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Stmble trip, stumble trip.
We're going on a bear hunt,
We're gonna catch a big one,
What a beautiful day,
We're not scared.
Oh oh!
A cave,
A scary, dark cave.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go throught it!
Tiptoe, tiptoe.
(Say the following verse all together and quickly.)
OH NO IT'S A BEAR!!!
Quick!
Through the cave, tiptoe, tiptoe,
Through the forest, stumble trip, stumble trip,
Through the river, splish splosh, splish spolosh,
Through the mud, squelch squelch, squelch squelch,
Through the grass, swishy swashy, swishy swashy.
Run to the house, run up the stairs,
Oh oh forgot to shut the door!
Run back downstairs, shut the door,
Run back up, to the bedroom,
Jump into bed, pull up the covers,
WE ARE NEVER GOING ON A BEAR HUNT AGAIN!!

Bear Songs on CD: Car Ride Fun/Animal Songs
#5 Teddy Bear's Picnic
#17  Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear.
#27  The Bear Went Over the Mountain

*Bear Books:
Little Bear (series) by Else Holmelund Minarik, Ill. by Maurice Sendak
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr., Ill. by Eric Carle
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom, Ill. by Bruce Degen
It's About Time, Jessie Bear and Other Rhymes by Nancy White, Ill. by Bruce Degen
Bears, Bears, Everywhere (A Rookie Reader)
The Bear next Door by Ginnie Hofmann
Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell, Ill. by Barbara Firth
The Red Ribbon; A Story of Friendship by Kristine Lombardi, Ill. by Thomas Taylor
Mr. Bear to the Rescue by Debi Gliori
(Goldilocks and ) The Three Bears; A Little Golden Book.
Goldilocks and The Three Bears (Caldecott Honor Book) by James Marshall
It's The Bear! by Jez Alborough
Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, Ill. by Helen Oxenbury
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, Ill. by Jane Chapman
Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson, Ill. by Jane Chapman
Pooh's Basket of Surprises (Jellybean Books--Disney's Winnie the Pooh)
Arthur's Honey Bear by Lillian Hoban
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Bears Odd, Bears Even (Puffin Math Easy to Read, 2) by Harriet Ziefert, Ill. by Andrea Baruffi
The Berenstein Bears (series) by Stan and Jan Berenstein
Can You See a Little Bear? by James Mayhew and Jackie Morris
The Bear With The Golden Hair by Karla Kuskin, Ill. by Linda Yakel
Bear Hugs by Kathleen Hague, Ill. by Michael Hague
Big Bear's Treasury; A Children's Anthology (Candlewick Press, Vol. 1, 3, & 4)
Baby Bear's Treasure; 25 Stories For the Very, Very Young (Candlewick Press) *
The Three Bears Holiday Rhyme Book by Jane Yolen and Jane Dyer (Month Poems)
The Biggest Bear by Adam Relf (oversized, light up constellation) by Scholastic
The Big Baby Bear book by John Prater * Perfect anthology for preschoolers 

Bear Movie Activity:
Scholastic has made the book Corduroy into a short movie for children.

Letter B and Bubble Trouble (fun)!

Daily Question:  Do you like bubbles? Our class all voted YES!

Toys:  Baking Cookie Set (Play Kitchen, wooden cookie set), Bug Game (Patterning), foam and wooden ABC Blocks, and Baby dolls.

  Building

Castles with foam Blocks

 Baking Cookies
 



 Block circles!  (Clever boys/shape finders!)





 








 Babies! (Great moms and dads in the making.)

Snack: Gold fish, Nilla Wafers, Candycorn pumpkins, cheese cubes, and Twix candybar minis.


Recess:  We enjoyed playing out in the sunshine today with jumpropes, balls, the airplane teeter-totter and ride on toys.

  Jump-rope fun!

Each child received his/her own container of playdough to take home to celebrate the triplets (Ava, Cole, and Henry's birthday) today!

B Bear's Bubble Art: Brody demonstrates how to make B the Bear's Bubble Art (or Bubble Stationary). Mix 1/2 C. water, 3 T. Tempera Paint, and 1 T. liquid dish soap in a cup. Put a straw into the cup and gently blow into the straw until it makes bubbles at least an inch over the cup. Turn the piece of paper over and let the paint bubbles pop on to the sheet. Enjoy!

Triplet's Unbirthday Celebration:

Ava: Favorite color is PINK!  She likes to eat noodles and loves to play with her Little Mermaid Doll.
Cole: Favorite color is white, he likes to play with airplane toys and be captain of the airplane teeter-totter.
Henry:  Favorite color is green, he loves his green shoes and to play with airplanes and Thomas the train toys.

 B Show and Teach: Oops!  We had so much fun finger painting and doing Bubble art that we forgot to get out the Show N' Teaches for letter B today.  Please leave them in the back packs and we will do them on Thursday.

B Sharing Time:

We are working on a lot of "Be"s:

Bee-ing nice, 

bee-ing kind, 

bee-ing friendly,

bee-ing helpful, 
bee-ing polite and using our table manners,

bee-ing clean (and helping put away toys), 

bee-ing dry (which many are still working on in this class!  :)

We spied a bunch of B words:

Basketball, bean bag, bubbles, bubble gum, bear, bag, book, banana, balloon, baby, bottle, blanket, blue, brown, and black, boy, bird, backhoe, bucket, bugs (and worms after the rain), bike, bunny, bump, bonk, bam.

B Books:
Bubble Trouble by Joy N. Hulme and Mike Cressy (Rookie Reader)

The Berenstains' B Book by Stan and Jan Berestain
The Bike Lesson; Another Adventure of the Berenstain Bears by Stand and Jan Berenstain
It's Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler, Ill. by Roger Bollen
Bembo's Zoo: An Animal A B C Book by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich

*Children play to learn and it IS their work!  We had a lot of fun learning together today.  Some children might enjoy a "Quiet Time" after lunch to rest and process what they learned.

**Remember for next time to send your student with a bear and bag snack lunch (and possibly a light sweat shirt/rain jacket if the weather is cool).

Apples, Apples, Applesauce!

Daily Question:  Have you ever made applesauce? (About half of our students have made applesauce).

Opening Activity: Threading Fruit Rings and Cheerios on our Zero Hero necklaces while listening to the song from School House Rock. (Simple patterns, fine motor skills)

 

Our class with the completed Zero Hero necklaces!

 

Parents, thank you for sending in apples/apple slices with your student.  We had a fun day exploring apples.

Apple Exploration!  What does an apple look like?... taste like?... sound like?...feel like?...smell like?  Today we found out.  We used various words to describe our apples--hard, round, red, green, yellow, sweet, juicy, etc.

Apples Here!  

Science/Math Extension:  Do apples float?  Students felt how heavy their apples were and then shouted out mostly "no!"  (See below--three students said "yes" and eight said "no" apples do not float!

Initially, our apples sank to the bottom of the sink (with little water).  As the water rose, so did the apples!  Apples FLOAT in water!  The principle behind this is that anything that is less dense than water will float and apples contain about 25% air and are less dense that water and so they float--leading to a fun game in the Fall,  Bobbing for Apples.

 

We had so much fun peeling the stickers off our apples; giving them a bath/rinse in hot, soapy, water and then taking turns using an Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer to help us make our very own applesauce!  

 

 

 

We had a fun time using an apple peeler, corer, slicer tool: sharing, taking turns, and eating the "candy" peels that spun off.

Johnny Appleseed, Myth or Man?  Man!

John Chapman, often called Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, including the northern counties of present day West Virginia. Wikipedia

Born: September 26, 1774, Leominster, MA

Died: February 18, 1845, Fort Wayne, IN

Song:  Johnny Appleseed Grace (Song)
(For a link to the music and other verses click on the above underlined song title.) 

Oh, the Lord's been good to me.
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun, the rain and the appleseed;
Oh, the Lord's been good to me.

Homemade Apple Sauce

Peel several apples (different varieties make it especially sweet.  Great for older "grumpy" apples).

 Core and slice up the apples.

Place in pot with a shallow layer of boiling water and a pinch of salt.

Turn apples down to a simmer and partially cover.  

Refill water when pan sounds "dry."  

When apples turn somewhat translucent (after 10-15 minutes), take off the heat and allow to cool some.  

Use a potato masher to squish up apples (my children love to help with this) or ladle apples into a blender and gently process.  

When finished to desired consistency, ladle into bowls and top with cinnamon and or cream and enjoy!

APPLES!

Apple Facts: We learned that another word for apple seed is a pip.  (Lemons seeds are also called pips.)  Also, we cut an apple in half and learned that it hides a star inside.

 Snack:  Fruit Rings, and Cheerios, Celery sticks, raisins, Apple Skittle Treats, Cupcakes (What a feast we had in class today!)  Thank you, Eleanor's mom for a fun treat to help us remember our apple day and William's mom for the delicious cupcakes.)

 

 Kayson and Eleanor trying "Ants on a log (celery)!"

Good Manners!  Today at snack time it was so fun to hear: "More water please!," "No, thank you," and "What is this? Celery."  

William's "Unbirthday" Celebration:

We had a fun time getting to know William today!  William turned four on August 17!  He received Star Wars "guys" for his birthday and he enjoys playing with toy trains.  He told us his favorite color is GREEN.  He has a blue hat that he enjoys wearing outside. He has a good friend Dade in class and likes to listen to stories.

Books Read:
Johnny Appleseed: A Poem by Reeve Lindbergh, Paintings by Kathy Kakobsen
Little Apple: A Book of Thanks by Brigitte Weninger and Anne Moller 

Apples Here! Written and illustrated by Will Hubbell

Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Suess

Preschool to the Rescue by Judy Sierra and Will Hillenbrand