Our interest in bears has been growing over the last week and it has never been stronger!
Each morning the children were greeted by a bear cave provocation of a soft furry fabric draped over shelves and boxes. Sometimes our bear puppet was in it, sometimes it was filled with children, and sometimes it was ripped down … well, because tearing things down is fun! “Bear cave” has become a familiar phrase around the room. We even had a few musician jamming out on the tambourine under the cave!
We also worked on our bear cave outside. We made it out of thick rope wrapped tightly around the many branches of one sprawling tree, but we are rethinking its structure for next week. The climbers in our older classrooms have put a bit more strain on the rope than it could take. We have high hopes for our new canopy approach.
Some children continued with bear inspired paintings we started last week. Pictures of bears in their different colors were laid out with paint and paper in matching colors. While painting the paper was fun, painting the laminated bear pictures proved just as fun, and was great display of color matching and recognition.
In this particular activity, the kids made a bear cave using red dirt clay. By bawling their fist and forming the clay around their fist, they each made a unique cave for a bear. Ms. Daphne asked, “How does the clay feel?” Donovan said, “Cold and wet.” Ms. Daphne also said, “Do you think our bears will want to live in the caves we made for them?” “Maybe,” Lila exclaimed. “Maybe bears will come out to play.” The kids had never ending fun with exploring the clay and answering open ended questions.
With Brandi, small groups worked on dyeing our wool an array of colors, then other groups began wetting it and forming it. It was soft, it was soapy, it was squishy! What a sensory experience!
Some groups worked on bear-noculars, by mixing colorful paints and rolling cardboard tubes to make brilliant designs. With the tubes glued and taped together and string added for holding it around our necks, we are now ready to explore! What will we see through our binoculars? Bears? Birds? Trains?
I see a pig! Pig says Oink, Oink. – Arianna
I see a cow! – Emmeline
I see a train! – Jake
Have a great weekend!
