Today, we learned a bit more about hibernation. We read The Very Sleepy Bear by Nick Bland, we talked about where bears like to live, and what a bear's den needs to have to be suitable for bears to sleep in. We used various materials to build and design our own bear dens! From homemade play dough to cotton balls, we had all the necessary tools to create a den that is ready for our wooden bears to hibernate all winter long! We had real life (photo) examples, as well as one Miss. Reimer made using our art materials. We also talked about how bear dens are usually made into the dirt, with the exception of the odd mountain den, and how dens are usually hidden in old rotten trees, or in dirt mounds that have plants regrowing on top. Students were so excited and waited patiently all day to be able to create their very own bear den, that they could take home to show their families. Everyone worked super hard and were extremely focused... this meant no classroom management for me! I was super proud of everyones creations and their work ethic during my teaching time! Materials used: We used paper plates as our base and taped a paper cup to it as a foundation for our den. We then used air-dry clay as the ground and den floor, and homemade play dough for the exterior of the den. We added real sticks and rocks, as well as plastic greenery to add some coverage, like a real bear den would. We used cotton balls that we pulled apart to act as the snow. For our bear I found some mini popsicle sticks and wooden clothespins to act as the bears body, and I printed off some bear heads that the students cut out!
Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this activity to anyone teaching hibernation. Even our students, who don't always want to participate, were SO ENGAGED!
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My very first lesson taught on my own went very well, considering how nervous I was. However, it was the first big realization that I was meant to be a teacher.
I began by asking students to turn on their listening ears and pay attention to any rhyming words they hear during a video on the "_at" word family. Once the video was done, I asked students to raise their hand and tell me what words they had heard that rhymed. We discussed why they Rhymed, what part of the word rhymed, and what other words it could rhyme with. I then directed students over to our chart paper where I had drawn two circles, one inside the other. The circle inside was much smaller and had "_at" written inside. I asked students to help me sound it out, we began with the "a" sound, then the "t" sound and then were mashed them together to create the "at" sound. I then told students to look around the room and think of different words that end in the "at" sound. I told them to raise their hands when they had an answer, when students gave me "at" words, I DREW their answers on the chart paper because they are not quite at the point of being able to read. From here, I asked each student to come up to the front of the classroom where I was standing to get a bag full of card stock cutouts. These cutouts, posted below, were pictures of train engines and train cars, they also received a large 11x17 paper with train tracks printed on it. As a big group we went through the activity, I would ask everyone to hold up the engine, have them sound out the "at" that was printed on there, and then had them glue it to the far left of their long train tracks. We had train cars with pictures of cats, bats, rats, hats, people who were sat down, rams, hams, and pots of jam. Together we went through them, I asked students what each picture was of, we would sound out the word, I would ask students if the word ended in an "at" sound, we would repeat the word slowly, and if students replied yes, we would add that train car behind the "at" engine, and if they replied no we glued that car onto the smaller set of train tracks. We were were finished, I had the students colour in their trains. The students really enjoyed this activity, and were very focused. There were issues with students placing their longer train on the shorter tracks, but it was nothing that couldn't be handled. We just ended up drawing the train tracks in after! |
AuthorHello! My name is Halle Reimer. I am a third year pre-service teacher going through my internship! Archives |