Over the past few days, I’ve shared activities in our hibernation unit.  First we built our bears.  And then we made caves for our bears and tucked them in for a long winter’s sleep.  Today I would like to share the last installment of our hibernation unit: waking up our bears…
It was a long winter and spring had finally arrived! Â We diligently marked off the days till the first day of spring when our bears would awaken and we could play with them…
When the first day of spring arrived, Â the children were anxious to be reunited with their bears. Â First thing in the morning, just before our circle time, we invited the children go and wake their bears…
We’d spent several long weeks tiptoeing around our bears as they slept quietly in our stairwell. The children were ecstatic to have the bears join us again in the classroom!  We celebrated by dedicating a whole day to spending time with our bears.  We started out by inviting our bears to circle time.  They listened intently to our story as the children hugged them close…
The children and their bears listened as Deborah read “Children Make Terrible Pets” by Peter Brown…
This book is super cute. Â It is about a bear named Lucy who happens upon a little boy in the wild. Â Not understanding the boy’s language, Lucy decides to call him Squeaker. Â After lots of good times and adventures together, Squeaker begins to miss his family and begins acting in a way that makes Lucy come to understand that children do not make the best pets…
After reading our book, we gathered up our bears for a little lesson in patterning. Â Together we laid the bears out on our picnic blanket, alternating bears up and down, and then reviewed our pattern aloud...
We discussed a few more patterns and then set off with our bears in tow to explore our centers for the day. Â At our first center, the children worked on creating their own patterns with colorful bears…
Our art table held simple materials for children to draw pictures of their bears so that they could record their memories of the times they spent together. Â First the children worked on making teddy bear self-portraits by tracing around their bears…
Then the children drew faces on their bears and adorned them with clothing…
There was also a sticky board playhouse for the children to enjoy with their bears…
Together as a large group, we also did some gummy bear science. Â Don’t worry, no bears were harmed in this experiment…
After a long winter’s hibernation and a full day of play, the children were ready to take their bears to their forever homes.
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