Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Story Sack: Bears

Cherub brought her first story sack home from school last week. I just love these! They have a very homeschool-ish feel to me, reminding me a bit of Five in a Row but with props (probably somewhere between FIAR and Before FIAR, as they are aimed at four year olds).

Her first sack has a bear theme and contains:

  • Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell - a lovely picture book, and one we own already, in a Little Bear treasury edition bound with three more stories. Until now, Cherub has turned her nose up at the book every time I suggested it to her, but thanks to the story sack has fallen in love with it. I can see we will be on a Little Bear kick for a while.
  • Grizzly Bears by Patricia Kendell (In The Wild series) - a non-fiction book about bears.
  • Big and small teddy bears.
  • Three red cloth lanterns, for acting out the story with the bears - Big Bear brings Little Bear a bigger lantern each time he complains it is dark and he can't sleep, before taking him outside to see the moon and stars lighting the night sky.
  • A puzzle-game for pairing up opposites, each illustrated with a bear picture.
  • An activity card based on Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? - activities include picture study, vocabulary words, looking at words (rhymes with big and bear, words beginning with B), talking about size, and suggestions of things to do with lights (vary from going out at night to look at the moon and stars, to lighting a candle and talking about candle safety).

1 comment:

Pamela said...

What a lovely story sack! We have a stuffed bear dressed in a Daisy Girl Scout tabard that we used to use at our meetings. He was the Talking Bear and when we would have circle time, whoever was holding the bear was the one that was talking, while the others listened patiently and waiting anxiously for their turn. He was a big hit.

It seems like props are really helpful to get children engaged with a story. I'm just starting to read The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter; wouldn't mind at all if I had a stuffed pal to sit by my side - LOL!