Every year since I started teaching, I do a week with a teddy bear theme. We read books with teddy bears, sing teddy bear songs, and on the last day we have a teddy bear Olympics Day. On this day, the kids complete different gross motor activities with the teddy bears at their side. They walk a balance beam, do a teddy bear toss, sort and graph all the teddy bears, measure the teddies with unifix cubes, and sing and dance with their bears. The teddies can come to visit on the final day or can stay for the week as long as behavior is good. I make this decision based on the class I have that year and what they can handle. The Teddy Olympics and the letter I send home comes from The Little Giraffes website. If you have never visited, I highly recommend this site for Early Childhood teacher,
www.littlegiraffes.com.
The one area I have struggled with for this theme is dramatic play. Last year I attempted a Goldilocks and the Three Bears center, but there wasn't enough action there for the kids. They got bored quickly! This year I was so excited with my idea for dramatic play! A Build-A-Bear Workshop in our classroom. I have no idea how popular Build-A-Bear is in other states, but in Missouri (where the corporate offices are located), most children have been to, or at least heard of Build-A-Bear. This center turned out super cool and the kids really enjoyed it!
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| Welcome to our Build-A-Bear Workshop in the The Little Owls classroom! |
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Pick a bear!
I asked co-workers to send in any old stuffed animals they were wanting to get rid of. We de-stuffed the animals with a slit down the back (sounds kind of gruesome) and hot glued some Velcro on the opening so they could open and close the animals. |
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The Stuffing Station!
After the kids chose their bear, they went to the stuffing station to fill it up as much or as little as they wished. We talked about the more amount of stuffing, the harder the bear. The less amount of stuffing, the softer the teddy! |
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| Some of our decorations! |
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| After the bears are stuffed, the kids take them to the dressing room and choose an outfit. |
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| We had bear pants, dresses, shirts, full outfits, and hats to choose from. |
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Get a home!
In the "real" store, these are called bear condos, but since our kiddos wouldn't know that term,
we just called these their homes. |
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When finished, the kids went to the check-out counter to pay for their bear.
We had a cash register, money, and I even made fake Build-a-Bear gift cards. |
Where did you get the boxes? Did Build-a-Bear donate them to you! What a super fun idea!
ReplyDeleteI did actually get them from Build-a-Bear. I had called the corporate office first because I thought I could get farther with them rather than a store employee. The lady in the office told me to go to the store and ask for some, that it shouldn't be a problem for them to give me a few. When I went in and explained myself and mentioned I already had called the corporate office, they were more than happy to help out! I wanted to try and save the boxes for the next time, so I made sure to tell the kids how special they were and remind them we had to be extra careful with them. Believe it or not, all of the boxes stayed in good shape. We can't wait to try this center again!
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