Bear Week - Activities to go with 8 books

I had initially planned on doing a 2nd week of Dr. Seuss books, but decided to alter my plan a little while I was pulling out all of our Easter books.  

We have books all over our house.  Just about every room has either a bookcase or book basket, and most of them have 2 or more.  I do keep our books organized by type, but not theme.  I've never really wanted to do that and enjoy going through all of our hundreds of books when searching for something.  

I began my search for our Easter books and quickly realized that we have dozens of books with a bear theme.  I immediately started pulling a few of them out and decided to do a bear theme this week, instead of another week of Dr. Seuss.  

Just like last week, we will read each book and then do the tray.  I expect we will do most of them every day.  Here are the activities and books I decided to use for the week:

Button Sorting with Corduroy

Sort the buttons by color.

Corduroy is missing a button, so I thought button sorting was the PERFECT activity for this book!

~color sorting & recognition~

Identifying Habitats with Grizzwold

Take an animal out of the metal bin and place it in the correct habitat bowl.

I kept this simple, rather than including specific land habitats, due to Super Tot's age.  This could easily be adapted for an older child, as well.

In this book, Grizzwold's forest home is being cut down, so he must try to find a new home that is suitable for him.

~science, classifying~

 Identifying Animals

Identify each animal you see through the window.

I have 20 animal cards in the envelope.  The window allows Super Tot to only see a small portion of each animal.  He is to try to identify the animals using only the small section he can see.  Once he guesses one, we will pull it out and check it before moving on to the next one.

In the book, each animal's mother loves him "with all her _______" (flippers, teeth, etc.).  I thought it would be fun to identify animals only being able to see one part.

~science, logic & critical thinking~

Sorting Bears by Size

Place each bear photo on the correct square based on the size of the bear.  There are 4 of each size.  

**These photographs were taken by my father, an award winning nature photographer.  Check out some of his work at Tranquil Photo.**
In The Biggest Bear, a young boy's "pet" bear grows way too big for him to keep.
~size discrimination~

Count the Bears

Count the bears in each row and place the correct number disk in the box.

Bears, Bears, Everywhere is a simple, but cute counting book.

~counting, number recognition~

Transferring Bears with Sal

Transfer the bears, one at a time, to the second bowl using the tongs.

Just like in the book, we are actually going to use blueberries for this activity at least a few of the days, but I couldn't leave them out!  We will also count them.

~transferring, fine motor, counting~

Happy / Sad Sorting with Albert the Bear

Place each photo into the correct bowl based on the emotion pictured.

In the book Albert the Bear, Albert has a sad looking face.  The other toys all try to cheer him up, and he can't seem to convince them that he is happy already.

~social skills~

Hide & Seek with Little Bear

Super Tot and I will take turns hiding one of the two bears and letting the other one seek.  He can also use the bears to reenact the story.

In Good Night, Little Bear we see the fun bedtime routine of Little Bear's family.  Little Bear sits atop his father's shoulders while his daddy looks all over the house searching for him, only to find that Little Bear is on his shoulders.

~role playing~

For lots more inspiration, be sure to check these sites:

1+1+1=1

Sun Scholars

No Time for Flashcards

Homeschool Creations

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

ABC & 123

Living Life Intentionally

Read, Explore, Learn

Living Montessori Now

Homeschooling on the Cheap