Are you asleep bear?

I am back!! Sorry it took me so long to find the time to write about our little adventures! There is just not enought time in a day for me! Anyway, we are currently completing our Autumn theme and I have introduced the children to the notion of hibernation. At circle time, I explained  them what animals were up to in Autumn time in preparation for the long winter months. First, I read them Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming. It is a wonderful spring-board for class discussions and "acting - out" activities!

Then I present them to a poster my daughter made for school project. I still look at it with very fond memories of the time we spent together making it and it has proven to be very useful in our classroom. It helps the children to visualise exactly what I am talking about as I read the book to them.

One of the kids favourite game related to the theme is  called "Animal, Animal, who are you?". The children sit in a circle.  One child sits or stands in the center and acts out the movements or makes the sound of an animal.   The other children raise their hands to guess what animal the child is imitating.  The child who guesses correctly then  acts out another animal.  You may want to have the child in the center whisper the name of the animal to you  before acting it out.  Then you can be sure the child has the animal clearly in mind, and you can help the child is necessary.

My little man was back from primary school that afternoon and was delighted to be able to start the game! Guess what he was...

And I love to introduce a variation to our Musical statues game (when the weather doesn't allow it outside, we move the tables around in the classroom and play inside). I call it the Musical Hibernation game. All you need is a CD player and mats. Have a mat for each child. Explain to the children that while the music is playing the animals(them) are dancing. When the music stops it is winter time and it is time to find a spot to sleep. As the children know more about hibernating animals, you can ask them what animal they are when they sleep too.

Another game I have up my sleeve is to bring the kids outside and tell them we are going to pretend there is  a bear hibernating in our garden, and we have to find it to make sure it stays safe (of course, we will have to make sure they grasp the notion that this is only pretending!!!). I was planning to do this game this week but unfortunately, it has been so wet that we haven't been able to go out at all.  The activity is based on the book We are going on a bear hunt. I read the book to the children beforehand (this is one of their favourite book and they know the words nearly by heart!).

What I am planning to do is first to chant our Bear Hunt song and invite the children to follow me as I go off on the bear hunt. We sing the little song from the book. We act out each line as we go. For example, when we say "we are going on a bear hunt", we all pretend to have binoculars! When we are singing about going throught the thick mud, we exaggerate our movememnts and lift one foot heavily, one after one, pretending to be stuck in the mud. 

I have one more activity planned for the HIbernation theme but I need good weather. SO I will kepp you posted as soon as we are lucky!!!! Keep in touch...