A Polar Bear Model

Monday (07/06/2010)
a) Flashcards vocabulary
· We revised the words learnt: bear, eyes, ears, claws, legs, hair, tail, hibernate, prey, predator etc.
· Then, we sang the song of “The Bear Went Over The Mountain”. We added new lyrics such as “He saw lots of children and ate all of them”. “He saw Teacher Jenny and ate her up”.

b) Storybook: Brown Bear, brown Bear, What do you see?
· It was by Eric Carle but since the school doesn’t have this book, I typed the sentences while the kids coloured the pictures. The kids loved it so much because it’s repetitive and catchy! Example:
- Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?
“I see a red bird looking at me”.
- Red bird, red bird, what do you see?
“I see a yellow duck looking at me”.
- Yellow duck, yellow duck, what do you see?“I see a blue horse looking at me”.
· The kids laughed and Jing Kai kept arguing about a blue horse and a purple cat……..haaaa! They were learning about animals and colours. J

c) Height and weight
· We recalled the height and weight of an adult brown bear. About 210cm and 680kg.
· We read the weight of each friend recorded last week. We added altogether and the total was about 361kg. Thus, we summarized that if 20 kids=361kg; then it takes almost 40 kids= an adult brown bear. However, at this point; another bear is bigger than brown bear. “Polar Bear” is the world’s largest largest land predator measuring up to 3m long and weigh about 770kg. I highlighted that “long” is not the same as “tall” but because bears could stand with their hind legs like humans, a polar bear would be longer than 3m.

d) A Polar Bear model.
· I used a measuring tape with the help of Chia Yen and found out that 2.1m is as high as the class door.
· Let’s make a “real” bear model. We already decorated the class with snails, rabbits, bats, brown bear pictures plus their dinosaurs done in the morning thematic. How else can we decorate? The kids like the idea and gave suggestions of making the Big Bear.
Qian Joe: Use kids. Jun Hong: Use chairs. Yun Wen: Use bedsheets.
*We agreed using bedsheets. I brought in a few. We categorized them. Some were longer while some shorter. The kids wanted to make a Polar Bear instead of Brown Bear.
Teacher: How can we construct it?
Shi Jie: Use sponge. Chun Kit: Use plastic. Yun Wen: Use paper.
Qian Joe: glass? Jun Hong: people?
· Haaa…..we tried stuffing 3 kids in the long bedsheet and zipped them. They said they disliked it because it’s hot and can’t breathe easily.
Shi Jie: People will die if zipped in the bedsheet.
· Good point! Safety first! Finally, we thought of newspaper because it’s easier to get. The kids crumpled and crumpled into balls and threw them into the bedshhet as if playing basketball. They were so fast and good that we finished aquarter of the space by the end of the lesson. ……to be continued.