Bear-y Common Core Updated with Bear-y Good Freebies!

Wow! Two posts in one week from me. I am on a roll! :)
We start school in exactly two weeks! Yikes! Since we start on a Wednesday, I like to have the first 3 days filled with fun activities. Last year we changed our theme to bears and it was so fun! The kids loved the unit, so we are sticking with it!

Here are some of the activities we used.
First, I projected the Bears non-fiction reader and we read it as a class.

We read it one more time and had to decide on our favorite bear and why. I let students know they had to pick a bear from the text because of something they heard or saw in the text. In other words, "because it's soooo cute!" was not an acceptable answer. Then, the kids looked around the room to find the bear that was their favorite. They moved to the corner with their bear and when signaled they buddied up with a partner. When signaled again, they told their partner the reason they chose the bear.
Last year, this was pretty much an experiment. Could first graders give a text based reason within the fort three days of school? And guess what? They could!

Next, the students completed this opinion writing activity. Click the pic for this freebie!

We did lots of other fun filled math activities too.
-Making 5 with Teddy Grahams. Click for freebie!

-Gummy Bear Sorting/ Graphing

- Bring a Teddy day. We sorted our bears, measured our bears, described our bears..

If you're thinking about trying this unit out but study bears later in the year. You're in luck! I just added 4 new student readers for each bear and a venn diagram for compare/contrast. It would be a perfect mini student directed research project. Check out the unit on my TPT shop!

"Beary" Common Core Bear Unit with freebies!

Hi, Friends!
I wanted to share some freebies and ideas with you in case you teach about Bears during the year.

Last year, my teammate and I started the new year off with a bear theme. It was so fun! I posted a lot of freebies (click the pics) I had created and this year I made so much more because I wanted the unit to align more with the Common Core shifts.

Last year, I posted about a 4 corners activity to get the students discussing opinions. Hang the 4 bear signs in different corners of the room ( included in the freebie). The students will have to decide which bear ( Panda, Polar, Brown or Black) they like the best and discuss the reason for their choice with a partner. The student will then write why they like that type of bear. We will use the sentence frame I like ____________ because. ( Also, free!)
We will then graph these results as well during math.

 However, this year, I added a non-fiction text we can read as a class to build the students' background knowledge about each type of bear. Then I can guide them to justify their opinion using a reason from the text.

I created a graphic organizer for each type of bear so students could work on finding the key details in text about each type of bear. I also added more opinion writing papers so you can differentiate and use this pack at any time during the year.

Last year I created these math freebies which are still available just click any pic to take you to the Google Docs file.

1-20 cards to practice one more/one less
(Just copy on  Brown construction to use less ink!)                
Play Bear Hunt with these cards. Hand out these cards to each student. Call out a clue such as, "Who has one more than 5?". The students with 6 would stand up. You can increase difficulty by asking, "What's two more/two less or 10 more/10 less?".


                                          One more/ one less practice/assessment
                                                      

                                  Reviewing combinations to 5 with Teddy Grahams
                              
This year I created so many more math activities! For every activity I created a more advanced game. Instead of just Make 5, I created a Make Ten as well. Rather that just including one more/ one less, I also added 10 more/10 less.  I added gummy bear sorting and graphing recording sheets, a Teddy Bear measuring record sheet and a building teen number equations game.

Hopefully you can use these freebies! If you teach Bears at all during the year, this could be a great addition to your unit. If you want to take a look at the rest of the pack on TPT. Just click the pics or right here!

A "Beary" Good First Week! Lots of Freebies!

My first week starts Wednesday!This year my teammate and I decided to change up the start of our year. We always usually start with insects because it goes with our Bridges math program but since our Kinder spent so much time on insects we're going with bears instead. I'm excited! It's going to be so fun!
We have a 3 day week to start so we felt they should have a fun first few days! I wanted to share some of what we will be doing and give some freebies too! I might put them into a unit on TPT soon so grab them for free while you can.

First we are going to play "Mystery Bag" with the students. This is a game where the kids take turns asking yes or no questions and try to figure out what is in the bag. A teddy bear will be hiding and ready to engage them in the unit. Then we will read "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" and actually go on a "bear hunt" around the school to show students the basic locations ( office, restrooms, nurse, cafeteria etc). We made our signs using a printed blank bear outline, copied the outline on brown construction, labeled the locations and hung around the school. Easy Peezy!

Then, we will be playing 4 corners with bears. The students will have to decide which bear ( Panda, Polar, Brown or Black) they like the best and discuss the reason for their choice with a partner. The student will then write why they like that type of bear. We will use the sentence frame I like ____________ because.
We are going to graph these results as well during math.

Over the next two days we will be completing
many more bear related math activities. Here a few below:

I will be playing a one more/ one less bear hunt with numbers to 20. Each student will get a bear number card. I will call out clues like one more than 6 or 1 less than 11. The student(s) with the number card will stand up.

After the whole group practice, I will assess this skill with this one more/ one less bear worksheet.

We will also be estimating how many bear counters in a jar, brainstorming strategies for counting and then counting them as a class.

                                We will of course be using gummy bears to count and sort...

                        
              ... and teddy grahams to make combinations of 5.

 On Friday, we are letting the students bring their Teddy Bear from home so we can describe our bear with our partners and then use them for math! We will be working in partners to measure our bears with unifix cubes. After measuring, we will come together as a group and order our bears from shortest to tallest using our unifix cube measuring towers. We will then think of ways to sort our bears!


        To end the week, we will complete my "Beary" Good Week Writing Craftivity.

 These are only a few of the activities; there are actually more! I will post pictures of the other activities after this week. If you want any of these printables, just click a picture to get all the freebies in one file. I hope this post gave you some ideas and saved you some work if you are going to start with bears. Please leave me a comment if you download anything! I'd love to hear any ideas you have about bears!

I am also having a 20% off sale to celebrate going back to school. My most expensive items are now an even better deal!