Our first thematic unit of Kindergarten was all about bears (or "roars" as E says). We began with a trip to the Denver Zoo - on a photo safari to capture images of all the different bears they had there...
Luckily, the polar bear, black bears and brown bears all were very active so J got some great pictures!! We sorted the pictures into a graph. Then, we described the bears by writing adjectives on a word wall.
We also read lots and lots and lots of books about bears. Some fiction and some non fiction.
One of our math activities used 'Teddy Bear Math' and manipulatives. This was probably J's favorite thing... he played with the little bears and pretended they were real as they hopped across the bear pages and he sorted/counted/worked with them. :)
We did a variety of science experiments, but by far the best was when we learned about how polar bear fat insulates their body. I told J to stick his hand in a bowl of ice water for as long as he could stand it. (He lasted about 7 seconds!) Then we wrapped his hand with plastic wrap and smeared it really well with LARD. Then we put another layer of plastic wrap over the fat and I told him to put his hand in the water again. He couldn't even feel the cold! It was such a neat way to illustrate how an animals skin can insulate the animal from the elements outside.
Incorporating writing, reading, math, and science into our day within the context of this theme was really fun! I think J learned a bunch about bears and we both looked forward to the activities. YAY!
