Holy hibernation, batman! (and a freebie)

We had so much fun last week....wrapping up January. Students learned all about bears and hibernation.  I bought Rachelle's bear unit and OMG - it was awesome. If you don't have it...you must hurry over to TpT and grab it.  Here is our week in pictures...

What I loved so much about this unit was that, Rachelle incorporated a ton of fiction and non fiction texts. Students took a break from reading about Grizzlies and Polar Bears....to learn about Corduroy the bear and how his character changed within the story. Students illustrated how Corduroy changed from sad to happy and made a sweet little Corduroy bear afterwards (see it in the middle photo?!) PRESH!

We did a little work in our poetry and math journals. You can grab the "Are you Sleeping?" poem {here}. That's a little gift from me!

Students learned all about hibernation and created a little hibernation scene out of Ellison di cuts and half a paper plate. They had so much fun creating snow with cotton balls and adding details. 

We also sampled bear food! Students tasted honey, strawberry jelly, and fish (tuna) on crackers. We graphed our favorite food and then wrote about it! I could NOT get over how many of my students loved the tuna. WHAT?! Pretty sure that would not have gotten near my mouth when I was 5 (I was...and still am a picky eater - ha ha). But, I was so proud of my kiddies for trying the "fish" and even happier with the ones who picked it as their favorite bear food.  Whoo hoo, way to go!

Here is a sampling of our finished writing. 

We even managed to mix bears into work stations. Here are just a few pics from the 10 work stations kinders rotated throughout. We graphed, measured, counted, patterned, learned about antonyms, added some new high frequency words, bear stomped syllables, and a partridge in a pear tree. These activities are compiled from stuff I had, Rachelle's unit, and Mrs. Huff's blog. Check out her hibernation post {here}. She was kind enough to email me some of her files to use during the week. And for free, no less. She rocks! Thank you Mrs. Huff!!

We wrapped up on Friday by having a "Teddy Bear Day!" Students brought in their teddy bears and we measured them and did some other fun activities. 

At the end of the day (shew), students enjoyed a cupcake...made by my student teacher. She found this great idea online and decided to plant a teddy graham inside a cupcake, so it would appear as if the bear was hibernating! Students LOVED this and couldn't wait to find their bear. Can you see him in the pic?  You must try it. They were soo cute! Well, sista over here is poop-did (as one of my kinders says) and I'm off to hibernate. Have a happy Monday. Is it that time already?