Children will use these bears in more ways than you can imagine. Some will play with them, as if they were miniature dolls. Others will sort them, count them, create patterns with them and organize them into families with larger bears representing the grown-ups and the smaller bears representing the children.

The bears are also proportionally weighted so they are a perfect item to be weighed on a scale. We will be looking at the Bucket Balance next week.

A fun game that I used to play with the bears was “The Trading Game”.  You begin by portioning out several bears to the children and yourself.  You then ask the children whether they want to “trade” their bears.  You can apply values to the bears (the large bears are worth 2 small bears, etc) and you ask the children to trade.  It is fun to see how the children approach the game.  Some think having “more” bears is the goal.  Others think that having bigger bears is the goal.  This can create a great discussion about value and equality.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

This week I am going to explore Learning Standard B, which only has one Benchmark, so it is fairly straightforward.

Learning Standard B – Describe and document patterns using symbols.

Benchmark 

8.B.ECa – With adult assistance, represent a pattern by verbally describing it or by modeling it with objects or actions.

Example Performance Indicators

Describe a pattern in words (e.g., tall, short, tall, short, tall, short, or red, blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow).

Represent a pattern by modeling it with actions (e.g., “do a clap for red and a tap for blue: clap, tap, clap, tap, clap, tap”)

Represent a pattern by modeling it with objects (e.g., “do a red bear for circles and a blue bear for squares: circle, square, circle, square”).

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My favorite thing about this Benchmark is that it includes the language “With adult assistance” since most children will need adult assistance or prompting to  meet it.  It is also smart that the performance indicators show the integrated nature of the early childhood curriculum.  The authors have written these so that they can be observed in different areas of the room while exploring other activities or through play.  Imagine that during circle time, you have children copy your pattern; clap, clap, tap, tap, clap, clap, tap, tap. They can “do” the action, and they can “say” the action.

Take a look at yesterday’s post about pattern and sequencing trays.  They go perfectly with this Learning Standard.