That's right. You read that correctly. We're going on a BEAR hunt! Hehehehe! Daddy is preparing for a BIG hunting trip this Fall to Montana, but little does Daddy know, Mommy Schmidt has his "Schmidt-girl-trio" in hunting preparation, too! And, we're hunting for BEARS! Daddy will surely be in camouflage on his hunting excursion (and believe me...with his being in the Army, we have PLENTY of camouflage around the house), but here is what the girls decided they needed for their hunting trip today!
When hunting for bears, Elle thinks you must look like bear! Is she not the cutest little bear ever? Completely harmless and completely adorable.
Clare and Brynn were sure that you must need safari hats and possibly a jump rope to stick together.
Clare was, of course, quick to remind me that we don't live anywhere near a forest and so this mission was likely to be unsuccessful. To which, I reminded her that she had to use her IMAGINATION!
And, we were off!
"Oh-oh! Grass! Long, wavy grass (ours is new mushy sod, but, remember, we are using our IMAGINATIONS). We can't go over it. We can't go under it. Oh, no! We've got to go through it!"
"Oh-oh! A river! A deep, cold river. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. Oh, no! We've got to go through it!" (Do you see that patch of sod that never took? That's our river. It looks just like a river, right? It's brown! It looks like river water. Remember....IMAGINATION!)
Clare has cleared the river. Brynn is quick to follow in her river boots! And, Elle...Elle is coming as quickly as her little legs will take her!
"Oh-oh! A forest! A big, dark forest. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. Oh, no! We've got to go through it!"
(Do you see that HUGE forest behind the girls? You might -think- it is just a patch of overgrown weeds, but...NO...that is a forest, and bears just might be in that forest!)
"Tiptoe! Tiptoe! Tiptoe! WHAT'S THAT? One shiny wet nose! Two big furry ears! Two big googly eyes! IT'S A BEAR!"
The two oldest girls are off! AGGGHHH! (I am sure, at this point, that if the neighbors were watching, they literally thought we were crazy. One very pregnant woman, reading a children's book with camera in tow hobbling up the hill, two girls screaming and running away in strange outfits...
and one little baby girl doing her best to scream and keep up with us all, too...
But, we were having FUN and making literature come ALIVE! We were on a bear hunt!)
"Get to our front door....Shut the door!"
Quick....downstairs and into our fort (this was a complete addition to the story that the girls came up with all on their own).
Come on, Elle!!!! HURRY! Close the door!
Phew! We made it! "We're not going on a bear hunt again."
Today's Math lesson was centered around the theme, "Which Way Do I Go?" and it was FULL of literature! We're Going on a Bear Hunt, retold by Michael Rosen, has been one of my favorite children's books for a long time. It is an excellent book to help children utilize their God-given imaginations and truly see how literature can come alive!
To correlate with the the Math lesson, we also read Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins,
and The Three Billy Goats Gruff retold by Carol Ottolenghi.
And, from all of these books, we created a list together of different ways that we can go...
Unbeknownst to the girls, we were not only working on "spatial vocabulary in everyday situations," but we were also working a little bit on verbs and prepositions. That, however, is a lesson for an entirely different day.
To culminate our learning and to celebrate, we just HAD to do the "Hokey Pokey," and when you teach the "Hokey Pokey," reading this page in Diary of a Worm is a HUGE hit...
I absolutely LOVE hearing little people giggle, and when they start to giggle at literature, you know that they are comprehending! Giggles abounded when we read this, and we were still giggling doing the "Hokey Pokey" (mostly because the girls are still learning their right from their left).
We might not have shot a bear today, or outsmarted a fox quite as well as Rosie the hen did, or helped the bully-of-a-troll change his mind as well as the three Billy Goats Gruff did, but we did learn about spatial vocabulary, and we did have a lot of fun. We also showed Daddy that even his girly-girls can prepare for a big hunt!
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