Tot School: Brown Bear, Brown Bear Theme

Ryce Man & Lil G are 13 months old. Ryce Man is my little guy, and Lil G comes to stay, play, and learn with us while his
Mommy is at work during the week. 😉

Character – We’re still reading a Bible Story each day. This week I’m reading “The Golden Rule” to the boys, hoping that they’ll begin to learn to “memorize” this little phrase I’m repeating to them. I’ll begin leaving off the last word to see if they join in and say it for me at some point, then increasingly take off more words as they help me finish it “Treat other people as you would like them to treat ____.” See how that works?

Language – We’re still using our Words on the Wall in Ryce Man’s room. I also scored a teacher’s set of color word cards for $1.25 at Dirt Cheap last week! (This week we’re particularly working on saying and reading color words, animal names, and making animal sounds).

Movement & Music – We’re doing a Beginner’s Walking Program. Our goal is to walk half a mile in 30 minutes as soon as we can, and then progress to various terrains. We live in a quiet neighborhood, which very little traffic on our street, which is great for this. I’m practicing with getting the boys to “hold my hand” while we walk so I can confidently take them out in public together without having to carry them soon. I’ve found that little ones get VERY DISTRACTED on these walks by every little thing they see so it may take us a while to reach our goal. 🙂 I’m using the “Map My Walk” app on my iphone to track our progress.

Refueling after one of our walks this week

Small Objects – I’ve transitioned Ryce Man’s room to reflect the Montessori Method a little more. No, we aren’t doing true Montessori, but I want the boys to have the activities easily accessible to them during play times using baskets and trays. I’m rotating toys and activities, but I haven’t decided exactly how often I will be rotating them. They do have favorite toys, and I hate to go too long without these being available for them to play with, but I do want to encourage them to explore other things as well. (Your suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.)

Senses – I just learned that Sensory Tubs/Bins should try to incorporate all of the senses… duh! Why didn’t this occur to me before? I think I’ve been giving them lots of texture and things to touch and feel and look at, but not so much of the other senses. My goal was to incorporate “taste” this week by giving them “Brown Bears” in their sensory bin (Chocolate Teddy Grahams) and maybe some “Goldfish” as well to go along with our theme, but I forgot to pick up both these items at the grocery store this week. Fail on my part. They enjoyed the brown beans and wooden spoons instead.

Writing – I’ve decided to divide this category into “Planned Art”, an activity that goes along with our theme and “Free Art” which will be done daily in their Art Journals. The Planned Art for the week will be to finger-paint small coloring pages of the animals from the story in the appropriate colors. These will be put together to make a “What do you see?” book. For Free Art, they are provided with various art materials – colored pencils, crayons, and markers to make their creations in their spiral art journals.

Math – Match animal cards to color cards; Count animals in the book; Match animal pattern cards

Reading – Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? (of course!) and other bear books…
Bear Shadow, The Troublesome Cub, How to Hide a Polar Bear, Mix & Match Forest Critters, Wild Animals, What is Black & White?, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, The Berenstain Bears- Life with Papa, Animals, Big & Small

They loved reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear this week in different ways. I’d read it and focus on the colors. Then, I’d read it and make the animal sounds. I’d tell the story using animal cards on craft sticks. They loved all the different ways we used this book this week.

We had a Teddy Bear Picnic which was a real hit! Ryce Man loved bringing Mr. Bear with him outside. (He sleeps with Mr. Bear every night and rubs his foot to fall asleep. It’s the sweetest thing ever.) Lil G didn’t have a bear that was special to him, but he did bring one with him outside. He wasn’t much interested in our picnic but just wanted to go play instead. Ryce Man loves to eat so he ate his lunch before playing, and ate some of Lil G’s lunch that he wasn’t interested in as well. 😉

I love this! Of course we played a little while before going in to take a nap. Boys will be boys!