Monday, May 9, 2011

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear: Exploring Our Surroundings

jesse bear what will you wear flowers
It's amazing what we can see if we only pay attention to our surroundings.
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom follows Jesse Bear as he goes through his day, waking up, dressing up, playing outside, eating, and sleeping. It is brimming with learning ideas on every page. We explored patterns, flowers, rhymes, and tried to pick up objects with our toes, just like the rose between Jesse Bear’s toes! As usual, I am only writing about the highlights of our week.


PATTERN RECOGNITION Little T absolutely loves to move so I make sure that we roam about to keep her interest. For Jesse Bear, we had fun looking for different patterns around the house. Notable patterns were the flowers on a trash can, the dogs on Baby Boy’s onesie, polka dots on Little T’s bag, and plaids and stripes on clothes.


PRE-READING, FINE MOTOR SKILLS Little T LOVES rhymes. When I told her that we would be doing rhymes after we read the book, she said she knew what we would do next, and took out our rhyme puzzle game, which I totally forgot we had. This game is wonderful for sounding out words and strengthening her fine motor skills which would help her in writing later on.

jess bear what will you wear rhyme
Puzzles are great for fine motor skills. 
This one has an added bonus of working on pre-reading skills!


RHYME Little T did not want to cut and glue a lot of things for the B book (of things that start with the letter B) that I downloaded from Homeschool Share. BUT she did make up her own rhymes to go along with the three pictures that she pasted on the book. As dictated by Little T, the poet:


I am the BEAR
Who sits on the CHAIR


We are the BIRDS
We nest in our PURSE


I am the BOY
Who sat on the TOY


EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY, ART Since Jesse Bear's art work is full of flowers, we explored our garden and neighborhood to look at flowers. It's amazing what we can see if only we pay attention to our surroundings! (See picture above for the flowers that we saw!) We then read The Flower Seed and did an Eric Carle-inspired art work, a simplified version of a pre-kindergarten art lesson that I found and seem to have enjoyed more!

jesse bear what will you wear flower art
Pre-K art that I seem to have enjoyed more!


SCIENCE Of course, planting actual sunflower seeds was part of the experience! I tasked Little T to water her plant every morning while Baby Boy is out getting sunned. Little T tweaked a song she learned from Kindermusik: I can plant a flower seed, just like this, just like this!


jesse bear what will you wear planting seeds
One packet of sunflower seed is P50 at Shopwise

THE LEARNING BASKET FOR THE WEEK
jesse bear what will you wear learning basket

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom
Go Along Book: The Flower Seed by Eric Carle
Bear Dress Up Puzzle
Felt Dress Up Game
Teddy Bear Lotto – a game of describing what’s on your card and finding it in the big picture
Packet of sunflower seeds
Melissa & Doug pattern blocks
Find the Rhyme puzzle game
Teddy bears
What’s a Bear to Wear? – a mix and match dress up book
Song: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around
Cranium's Puppy Pals Bingo - a board game for pattern recognition

Make magic!

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7 comments:

Morgan said...

wonderful ideas! thanks for sharing...i particularly feel inspired by the neighborhood tour and the "learning basket" idea...brilliant concept :)

Mariel said...

hi Seeker! thank you :) i'm glad you found your way here. i hope you get more ideas as you explore the site :)

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

Have fun! Babyhood and toddlerhood are the best time to enjoy our children.

Guerrero Jack said...

I love how you play and bond with little T! Will try this with my baby boy! :)

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

hahaha! our sunflower bloomed after a few months, when we have all but forgotten about it! 

kim/angeli E said...

we tried planting some watercress seeds when we rowed another book- failed :( what did i do wrong? LOL haha but love love love this book. ants in my pants! =)

juliemardec said...

What you are sharing are very helpful to first time mothers like me. :D 
The activities you've shared can definitely develop the kids' interest and care for our nature. 
It's learning, playing, and bonding, all at the same time! Love it! :D
Hope to read more blogs from The Learning Basket when my baby is over a year old.