Playing Catch Up-Finishing the "Bears" Unit

First of all I apologize for slacking off. I have been really busy lately and haven't had time to blog.

Last week we finished off the unit of Bears This post is actually two different lessons.

For Math and Counting I made these cute little cards. I sat down late one night to watch a movie, and just started cutting construction paper. I had to trace Teddy Grahams (Pictured Below) and then cut out a bunch of little bears to glue onto my cards.

This is a random side note, But there are two kind of teddy bears in those grahams. There are bears with their arms up, and bears with their arms down. (See cookies on the box below.) They won't fit quite right into each others cut outs, so I just did one, and then picked out all of the bears that I wanted to use.


Another thing to keep in mind is that you don't want your child to just pick up a graham and place it on the cut out. That defeats the purpose of counting. Then it's more like shape sorting, but with only one shape. You want to make sure they are counting. So what I did was I had a pile of grahams and they had to count how many they needed from the card, and then count that many out from the pile. And of course when they were done they got to eat them!! :)

We did a craft with brads. I cut these bears out the same night that I cut out the Teddy Graham Cards. I just drew them myself, and then cut them out. Sorry that I don't have a pattern. You can find brads at Walmart in the office supply section. That way they have moving parts! :)

Below are all of the books that we read for this section on Bears.

"We're Going on a Bear Hunt" is an EXCELLENT book for children! It isn't as much about bears as these other books, but it has repetition and an engaging story. Very good book!

For one coloring project I just googled a picture of a bear. I wanted it to be a more realistic bear. Coloring and drawing are really important to prepare preschoolers for kindergarten. According to my Step Mom, who is an elementary school teacher, you would be surprised how many kids enter kindergarten and don't know how to hold a crayon. She also says you can clearly tell which kids were put in day care vs. preschool vs. staying at home with their moms or dads. Day cares usually just "watch" children, and provide little activities for learning. While preschool-ed children and children who stay at home with their moms are much more educated and ready to learn. So bravo to you all who are taking the initiative to teach your children!