Friday, January 21, 2011

Polar Bears!!

This is a project we did as part of a unit on winter and polar animals.

To create the template, I took the picture I found of a teddy bear outline, (http://twistynoodle.com) inserted it into word, and wrote "My polar bear's name is.." underneath it.

For the class... I gave the children just the glue and the template to start off, and I showed them how to cover the entire inside of the template with the glue. Next, we used medium sized cotton balls to stick to the glue. Once most of them were finished, I talked to the group about what the bear was missing. With a little encouragement they figured out that he needed eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I then set out some plates with various materials on them: cut pieces of string, buttons, pom poms, and googly eyes, and let the kids go for it.

Now, I realize that these aren't your typical polar bears, more like polar bears from planet X, but I'm really not interested in cookie cutter artwork. I think forcing children to adhere to some adult idea of what is "right" just stifles them creatively. Not to mention having 12 polar bears that look exactly the same sounds kind of boring to me.

I have these displayed in the room right now, and they are pretty hysterical. I have some with 20 eyes on them, and others with nothing but buttons.






The children got pretty creative with the names they gave their bears as well. We had our fancy bears: Gabriella and Eala. Our islander bears: Tiki and Jaga. Our country music bear: Hank-O-Mise. Our traditional bear: Snowflake. Our big bear: Tiny. And last but not least the undefinable (and my personal favorite): Chicken. :)

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