Collaborating with the Kindergarten classes is always a blast. During the 2023 winter term, the Kindies were learning about bears and hibernation. Instead of booklets and worksheets, we went on a Bear Hunt.
My niece Emma not only was my partner tour guide, but also stayed late after school with me to created the bear habitats.
We divided the library into five bear habitats for polar, black, spirit, brown, and panda bears. We chanted the bear hunt song, did the actions, and located the bear.
The classroom teacher was in charge of reading the "bear clues" to the class. When the students finished the clues they went on to the next bear.
The tour went as follows:
Around the mountain: find black bear/ catching salmon in a river
Swim across a river: find panda bear/eating bamboo in a bamboo forest
Jump over icebergs/ find polar bear in snow
Crawl under vines/ find brown bear in forest
Go through dark cave/ find spirit bear sleeping in a cave
Students learned about the habitat, country/location, food, and other characteristics about the five bears.
I ran a forest ambience video on the big screen for both appropriate noises and a little extra light other than the flashlights.