Week 19

In preparations for week 19, I was on the fence about what to do. I took me a while to track down the book. When I looked over the activity suggestions from our curriculum, I felt they were more appropriate for a one-on-one setting, not a group. I was worried some might be scared as we read this story, since that has happened in the past as we sang the song. I almost dumped it. I toyed with reading Dr. Suess books and doing things for his birthday instead.

But as I looked at the book again, I got a little inspiration. It truly has beautiful illustrations and the text is so inviting for a read aloud. I am glad I stuck with it. The kids LOVED it. The text was so fun to read. We can leave the Dr. Suess stuff for elementary school. :)

After we read the book the first time, we did a little sequencing. We talked about the beginning, middle and end. What came first, what came next and what came last. We looked for scenes from the story and put them in order. Here, Bronwen holds up a picture of a cave and finds its place.

After the second reading, we discussed our five senses. We talked about how the family in the book was able to enjoy their bear hunt because they used their five senses. The felt the grass, smelled flowers, squished in the mud, walked through the river, saw the dark forest, cave and bear! Then we did a little five senses exploration of our own.

Bronwen uses her hands to feel the grass.


Lincoln and Calli use their noses to smell the flowers.

Sydney and Paige use their ears to hear water splashing in the bowl.

We spent some time working with letters. A little dot-to-dot painting and writing practice of the letter A...

and exploration with magnetic letters...

Paige sorts her letters by color.

Then I encouraged them to find the letters in their names. Fun to see what they came up with...

Sydney and Bronwen enjoying snack outside on a beautiful day...

And wrapping up the week with a bear decoration craft. Can you guess who made each one? It was cracking me up watching them put these together. Personalities totally shining through.