a beary big project

I've blogged before about the mystery surrounding the daily activities at Madeline's preschool. She's been a student there for nearly three months now, and is somewhat more forthcoming with details about what she does each morning. The activity that I find the most intriguing is their big project - bears. Bears seem to have taken over every learning objective in her classroom!

It started, I believe, when the class read the story Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (great book - we've borrowed all of the sequels from the library). Then the class wanted a bear cave of their own. So, they pretended that a large box was a bear cave. Then, the class decided to paint it, so they had to figure out what colour bear caves were. Next, they had to determine what kind of objects, if any, were in bear caves. Reportedly, the troupe of three year-olds went into the school yard to collect leaves for the interior of their bear cave.

The bears are everywhere. Madeline and her class have made art like bears, walking across a canvas on paint-covered hands and feet. They count bears at their math table, trace bears on their computer station, and they probably try to dance like bears during their movement and music unit on Wednesdays.

They've smelled and tasted some of the foods that bears eat. When Madeline brought home a muffin last Thursday, their cooking day, it contained the kind of berries that bears like to eat, of course.  I was glad they didn't make muffins with salmon :)

This weeks, the intrepid three year-olds have brought stuffed bears from home to live in the bear cave, and tomorrow, the teddy bears are having a picnic ...