Three Snow Bear's: Fully Loaded Lesson
Three Snow Bears
Today was a fully loaded lesson as one thing led to another and we covered several subjects without intending to.
We picked The Three Snow Bears, by Jan Brett (author of "The Mitten") out of our winter books pile.
I had hoped to fit a little math lesson in (measurement exploration http://buggyandbuddy.com/math-activities-preschoolers-measurement-exploration-center/) and it just so happened, the Three Bears was a relevant fit.
We placed three pieces of painters tape on the floor and proceeded to measure ourselves, to determine how we ranked in size (body awareness).
Measure Me!
It wasn't long before I could step aside and watch O as she sought out several other objects (and a baby sister) to measure. We used a 12" ruler to emphasize how numbers play a role in measurements (math), but she was quite happy just to compare by sight, after marking lengths.
Daddy's Elementary Ruler
Baby C's Toothbrush
Sophie the Giraffe
The lesson easily shifted into our Daily Doodle prompt (art); draw using only circles.
We opted for the stacking rings to trace, as we further explored comparing sizes.
My intent was to create bears from the circles made, but O had other plans.
She cut out her largest circle (practical life skills), coloured it orange, called it the 'sun' and pasted it to paper before asking me to hang it on the Gallery Wall.
The Sun
This segued into another (art) project I had lined up; needle prick typography https://reramble.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/all-i-really-want-to-prick/.
I lightly sketched the letter 'B' (language) onto a piece of paper.
We placed a hand towel underneath and tied a thread with needle around O's wrist (I've learned from previous sewing efforts that needles are easily lost unless they are attached to us!) O went to work pricking paper to create letters of the alphabet. Fine motor (early writing skills) in action!
The results look lovely in the window, back-faced by a flashlight, or as a medium for Light Table Activities.
I found these gorgeous examples of needle-prick art in a paper art book.
This could extend into another math lesson, but we were pooped by this point!
We ended our morning of hard work, with some Teddy Graham's (food) courtesy of Fork and Beans http://www.forkandbeans.com/2014/12/11/cinnamon-teddy-grahams/ experimenting with the ingredients, since we don't use almond meal and didn't have coconut flour (science)!
Completely by coincidence (since we started the day with the Snow Bears), when we were visiting The Kids Should See This at the end of the day, we came across an old film from The National Film Board of Canada, about how to build an igloo http://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/national-film-board-of-canada-how-to-build-an-igloo-1949 (geography, architecture & seasons).
O was feeling very sorry for the nomads and offered to pay for a hotel room!
She was especially distraught that they had to stay in their coats 'indoors'.