Bears, Badgers and Buses

Yesterday we finished up B week as there were some activities I really wanted to do but did not get the chance to do. We had three themes for the day on top of our usual school workload and it was a very busy but wonderful day.

We began the morning with some basic lessons (math, handwriting, phonics) and then moved into our bear theme. Using the bear worksheets from Enchanted Learning as a baseline we had a great lesson on bears. I had them color each of the bears in while I read the detailed information on that bear. We covered: brown, grizzly, American black, polar, sun, panda and spectacled bears. We learned, sang and acted out the song "Going on a Bear Hunt" and then discussed the difference between teddy and real bears and how teddy bear got it's name (Teddy Roosevelt). The kids looked at their wide collection of bears and matched the bear to the type of bear it was a replica of. We watched streaming video of polar bears and listened to sounds of brown bears fighting and black bears nursing. We built a cave under our kitchen table with blankets and put all the bears in there and hibernated with them. I read them some stories about read bears and teddy bears under there then we went to sleep and woke up from hibernation hungry and with bear cubs we had to find food for. Bears is one of my favorite lessons.

Next we moved into our bus theme. We decided to take a big bus adventure. We started out by stopping at a bookstore and buying a B book. Then we waited at the bus stop and the kids got to take their first bus ride - they were very excited. Each got to put the fair in and take their transfer ticket. We took the bus to a bakery where we had brunch and the bakery had a bear theme. We walked around pointing out all the bears and bear related items. We went back to the bus station and sat on the benches there and looked at old pictures of older buses. We came home and moved right into our badger theme.

For badgers we started with two pop culture badgers videos they enjoy (Serona's influence) to peak their interest in badgers. These can be found here and here. Even Sirah enjoys these. You will want to prewatch them before showing them as they are rather silly, not very "educational" and some may not find them appropriate or worthwhile. My kids love them and think they are funny and they were a nice transition into badgers. We read a non-fiction book about badgers, then two Frances books (bedtime and best friends for Frances) as my kids think she is the most famous badger and love her songs, and then another fiction book about a badger. We finished the lesson by watching a streaming video of badgers which reviewed much of the material in the book and let them see them in action.

We finished the day with some carschooling as we went to pick up our dogs. Rhiannon read three books out loud, did two math file folder games, a phonics file folder game , colored three pictures, and completed two dot to dots. Ciaran got to listen to his Big Bug Book on tape and then we moved into C week with listening to Charlotte's Web again on tape.

Peace,
Tenn