The Bear Puzzle

Monday (31/05/2010)

a) Vocabulary recap

* We looked at a poster that I drew. It was a huge Brown Bear. Words: ears, eyes, hair, fur, tail, arm, foot, legs, claws, fish and mountain.



b) Puzzles

* I prepared 2 huge puzzles which I drew and cut earlier. One was Polar Bear and another, the Brown Bear. Each has got 10 pieces. We have 2o kids but Chun Kit and Jun Hong were absent. Thus, I divided them into 2 groups with each choosing their desired piece of puzzle. 2 kids got the extra. They callenged each other and at first round, the Polar Bear group won! Then, they exchanged the puzzle and again, the Polar Bear group won! The kids complained that the Brown Bear was difficult as I drew it standing up and was out of their expectation......heeee!



c) More about Brown Bear.

* As it was windy and looked like a thunderstorm was about to happen at anytime, I thought it wasn't safe to continue watching our cartoon film, "Brother Bear".

Yun Wen: It's better to watch tomorrow. If lightning strikes the PC, even the CD will spoil entirely and we can't watch it forever again!

Teacher: Well said.

* We learnt more info about Brown Bear. It's habitat ranges from mountain, forest, river and to Arctic. They are mammals because they have fur, gave birth and love thir cubs. They are omnivores as they eat plants and meat.

* We made a circle and pretended to hibernate. The kids said sentences after me. "Before winter, I must eat a lot to be fat. During these 3 months of winter, I don't pass motion nor urinate. However, bears do sometimes wake up a little while at hibernation. If their body is strong enough, they would give birth to 2 to 5 cubs at this hibernation. While mother bears sleep, the cubs feed on the bear's milk. Thus, a mother bear is very thin by Spring. From Spring onwards, mother bears will teach their cubs to hunt and to protect themselves. A cub at birth is as big as a mouse and weighs about 0.45kg. However, an adult Brown Bear is as heavy as 680kg. None of the kids guessed correctly. It's height is 2.1m, taller than me! We measured using a long ruler. 2.1m is slightly higher than a door. Wow, if a bear ever visits us, it has to hunched a little to get in! :)



d) Weighing machine.

* We wanted to find out how many kids are equal to an adult bear. Thus, the kids queued up to take thwir weight. The lightest in the class is Natalie of 15kg. A few kids weigh 22 kg. Altogether: 18 kids = 345kg. Averagely, it takes 36 kids to make up an adult bear......:)! Wow!



e) Koala isn't a bear.

* Jun Hong did ask why Koala isn't a bear. Well, because it is "Marsupial" equivalent to a Kangaroo. It has a pouch to keep its baby Koala. they live on an Eucalyptus tree whereby the leaves are poisonous to humans and other animals. However, Koala will only sleep after eating them. Foo Soon showed the class a picture of Koala. Some kids got confused between Koala and Giant Panda.