After a long winter’s nap, it was time to wake up our bears. The children were super excited to wake up their bears but if you’re going to wake up your bear, you better be prepared for a big day ahead!
The children started their day by reading the sweet book titled, “Spring is Here: A Bear and Mole Story” by Will Hillenbrand. This is a sweet book with lovely illustrations about a mole trying to wake up his friend bear but it takes him several tries before he gets the job done.
After reading the book, the children headed outside to the bear caves to wake up their bears.
The bears have been sleeping inside the caves since December and the children found their bears still snoozing away in soft warm blankies. The children gently woke up their bears and carried them back inside for our wake up bear party.
I want to stop a second to say that before heading off to get our bears, I talked with my older students a little bit about using their imaginations. Since our bears weren’t real, the children were really going to need to draw upon their imaginations to get the most out of our pretend wake-up bear party (both our preschool and prek age students participated). I’m not sure I needed to have that little talk but I wanted to encourage the children to really let loose and enjoy the day with their pretend bears and imaginary play – and let me tell you, these children have wonderful imaginations!
After returning back to the classroom with their bears. the children went right to work. Since the bears have been sleeping in a cold dark cave for so long, they were going to need lots of special attention. The children had a checklist of things they would need to do for their bears and it was up to the children to take it from there…
The check list included words (and pictures) of things like “Give the bear a bath.”
At the grooming station, the children could “wash” the bears in our tub with paper bubbles and paper soap…
Brush their bear’s fur…
Brush their bear’s teeth…
The children spent time throughout the morning coming and going from the grooming station until they were satisfied that their bears were nice and clean…
I am writing this rather late tonight and I still have another day of preschool ahead tomorrow. I am off to get some much needed sleep and will get back to you soon with more tales from our Wake Up Bear party! Stay tuned as you won’t want to miss it!
Available on Amazon
Links to Grow On
Tucking our bears in for a long winter’s nap by Teach Preschool
Time to Hibernate by Teach Preschool
Gummy Bear Science by Teach Preschool