Bears

Language Activities:

Students will:

Bring a teddy bear from home.  During circle time, students will talk about the similarities and differences among their teddy bears.

Sing “The Bear Went Over the Mountain,” chant “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around”, and “Going on a Bear Hunt”.

Students and teacher will read Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr. and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear by Bill Martin, Jr. 

Read the story This My Forest.

Re-write Brown Bear to include real forest animals.

Write a story about the teddy bear that visited their home.

Read steps listed on a recipe chart in order to make bear claws.                   

Listen to read-a-louds from selected bear books:

                        The Big Bears big book

                        Nature’s Children:  Polar Bears

                        Endangered Bears

                        First Book About Animals of the Polar Regions

                        Polar Animals

Math Objectives:

Students will:

Make comparisons of differently weighted containers using a balance.

Sequence steps of a recipe; count out ingredients following a recipe.

Estimate the weight of an actual bear. 

Measure the actual size of a bear’s paw.

Math Activities:

Teacher will prepare three opaque containers of equal size.  One will be full (to represent papa bear), one will be half-full( to represent mama bear), and one will be almost empty (to represent baby bear).  Students will free-play with a balance to determine which container represents which bear.

Students will read the recipe for Bear Paws and determine how many ingredients are needed for the class.  They will then count out the ingredients needed for their own bear paw and prepare it using a toaster oven.  (A bear paw is a refrigerated biscuit with 5 slivered almonds inserted for claws.)  Students will meet again to sequence steps of activity.

Teacher will draw a large balance on a wall.  Teacher will draw a large bear in one pan.  Children will draw pictures of themselves on the other pan and estimate how many children they will need to equal the weight of the bear.

Teacher will prepare a model of a bear’s paw using measurements found on web sites visited.  Students will place the model on their hand during center time.

Website sources: www.enchantedlearning.com

                            www.polarworld.com

                            http://home.earthlink.net/~bruno6

Social Studies Objectives:

Students will:

Find various regions on a map or globe. 
Use oral language to describe the regions.

Identify the terms endangered and protected species.

Use oral and written language to describe home/family routines and Activities.

Social Studies Activities:

Students will visit the LJ Bear website which follows LJ as he travels around the world.  Students will locate the places on a map or globe.  Students will describe the places they liked best.

Using the web site http://natzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/1999/2/bearconservationworld.cfm , students will learn how bears are protected in different parts of the world.  Students will discuss the terms endangered and protected.

The Traveling Teddy Activity www.ljbear.com

Each day a different child packs a teddy bear in a suitcase and takes it home to spend the night at the child’s home.  The child’s assignment is to write a story of what happened with the teddy bear at his home.  Each story is added to a class book.  Children can compare different family members and family activities.

Science Objectives:

Students will:

Use scientific processes.  The student will develop abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry in the field and the classroom. 

The student will know that information and critical thinking are used in making decisions.

The student will use scientific processes.  The student will use age-appropriate tools and models to verify that organisms and objects and parts of organisms and objects can be observed, described, and measured. 

 The student will know that organisms, objects, and events have properties and patterns.

The student will know that systems have parts and are composed of organisms and objects. 

The student will know that many types of change occur. 

The student will know the difference between living organisms and non-living objects.

The student will know that living organisms have basic needs.

Science Activities:

Students will brainstorm adaptations of bears.  The teacher will record student’s answers on chart paper.  Student’s knowledge of the adaptation of bears will grow as they listen to non-fiction books read-aloud about bears.

Students will complete the Blubber Mitten activity.  This experiment can be found on the web at http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/3500/Activities.html.  During this experiment, students discover the importance of Arctic animals’ blubber and how it keeps the animals warm.  Then, students will decide if blubber or fur is the most important adaptation in the polar region.

Complete an Arctic Adaptations experiment.  This experiment can be found on the web at http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/3500/Activities.html.   The objective of this experiment is to discover why Arctic animals have shorter tails, noses, toes, and ears than their warmer climate counterparts. During this experiment, students will use a mitten and a glove to determine which one keeps in heat the best.  Then, students will relate their findings to the size ears, tails, noses, and toes of Arctic animals. 

Students will listen to many non-fiction books about bears to determine specific characteristics of brown, black, and polar bears.

Students will work in small groups to complete a mural about their assigned bear.  Website:

    http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/3500/Activities.html

Art Objectives: 

Students will:

Gain a deeper understanding of what an illustrator does and how their art is created. 

Prepare masks that correspond to a piece of literature. 

Study an artistic style and attempt to recreate it. 

Art Activities:

Students will visit the Eric Carle web site after reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  They will focus on the FAQ’s section about Eric Carle and his work.  A discussion will follow during which students will think about what being an artist would be like:  the good points and bad points.

After reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear , the students will prepare masks to use in a live production of the story.

Students will study the art in several Eric Carle books.  They will search for similarities and discuss how they think a particular effect was obtained.  They will then be allowed to create their own styles at the art table.

Website source: www.eric-carle.com

Music Objectives:

Students will:

Identify the difference between a singing and a speaking voice. 

Sing songs and play musical instruments. 

Identify simple relationships between music and other subjects. 

Music Activities:

Students will sing or chant…

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

 “Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around.

                                    Teddy bear, teddy bear touch the ground

                                    Teddy bear, teddy bear reach up high

                                    Teddy bear, teddy bear touch the sky

                                    Teddy bear, teddy bear bend down low

                                    Teddy bear, teddy bear touch your toes

                                    Teddy bear, teddy bear touch your nose.”

                                    “The bear went over the mountain,

                                    The bear went over the mountain,

                                    The bear went over the mountain

                                    To see what he could see.”                

 Cool Bear Chant

                                    (Children will repeat each line)

Going on a bear hunt.

                                    Gonna catch a big one.

                                    With big, green eyes.

                                    And a fuzzy little tail.

                                    Look over there.

                                    It’s a candy factory.

                                    Can’t go over it.

                                    Can’t go under it.

                                    Can’t go around it.

                                    Guess we’ll go through it.

                                    Yummmmm.

Peanut butter river…

Jello swamp…

                                    Cave…

Bears 

Tune:  Mary Had a Little Lamb

Grizzly bears are big and brown,

Big and brown, big and brown.

Grizzly bears are big and brown,

And live in the woods.

Polar bears are soft and white,

Soft and white, soft and white.

Polar bears are soft and white,

And live where it is cold.

Teddy bears are just my size,

                                    Just my size, just my size.

Teddy bears are just my size

To cuddle up with at night.

Bear Bodies

Tune: Head and Shoulders

Fur, fat,

Knees and claws,

Knees and claws.

Fur, fat,

Knees and claws,

Knees and claws.

Eyes and ears and tail and paws.

Fur and fat,

Knees and claws.

Students will use musical instruments for special effects during the play. 

Students will:

Grading Rubric