Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? - Shelf Work

In my introduction post to Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? I explained that we would be covering a few different topics for this unit.  I'll group our shelf work together by these topics.  The first is healthy eating.  In the book, Jesse Bear is shown eating his lunch, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about healthy eating.  We are mostly focusing on fruits and vegetables because there are more of them to discuss than grains, dairy, etc, but we will also touch on the other various food groups.

Watch the video to see the activities in action!

Fruit and Vegetables Poster

I created these two posters that I positioned near our shelf work.  I realize some people will argue with me over my choice in vegetables, as some are technically fruits.  I took a culinary approach to it, and consider many of these to be vegetables (as in what we use for cooking), despite them having seeds.  If you would like a copy of these, let me know in the comments below or email me at stayathomewithus@gmail.com and I will send them to you.  😊

Apple Counting

Apples are one of E's favorite fruits so I knew I had to incorporate them into this unit.  This printable came from here.  It is a black and white printable that I colored, and laminated.  I am trying to teach E to count to five so we are pretending the pom poms are apples.  I often sing "Way Up High in the Apple Tree":

Way up high in the apple tree

Five little apples smiled at me;

I shook the tree as hard as I could,

Down came the apples,

Mmm, they were good!

It keeps E interested and entertained.  There is a cute fingerplay associated with the rhyme, if you would rather do that than using manipulatives to count apples.

Fruit Graphing 

This printable came from here.  She has a link in her profile to her drop box where you can find her printables.  I used a brad and a bent paperclip to create the spinner, E spins the spinner and then we stick a colored dot in the corresponding square.  This is great for dexterity since it takes practice to get the sticker in the right spot.  I bought my stickers for $1 at Dollar Tree.

Fruit Sorting

I cut small colored circles out of construction paper and stuck them inside of a muffin tin.  Using E's play food, she has to sort the fruit by color into their respective cup.  This is great because it's also reinforcing colors, which we learned in our last unit.

Fruit and Vegetable Match

Printable can be found here.  The idea is to hide the small cut apart squares in a sensory bin and then attach them to the control sheet.  I might try to do this with E later, but for now we're just using it as a matching game, I am using it to for vocabulary and color recognition.

Fruit and Vegetable Do-a-Dot Pages

We are using the grapes, apple, and carrot pages found here.  I made some pom pom magnets by hot gluing pom poms onto some thick round magnets, so we are using those this week instead of do-a-dot markers.  This way E can do this activity as often as she likes.  I have to say, this is a HUGE hit so far. 

Preschool Workbook Sheets

Both of these pages are taken out of our preschool workbook.  The first is a scene from a grocery store.  I am going to point out items E doesn't know, and have her tell me the ones she does.  Then we'll point them out to each other when we go to the real grocery store.  The page on the right, E is going to name the fruits, the colors they are, and color them.

Preschool Worksheets

The page on the left is from our preschool workbook.  We are going to have a teddy bear picnic this week and talk about what food we want to bring with us.  We'll draw lines from the food to the basket and talk about how cake is a sometimes food.  The page on the right is from here.  It is a grocery list scavenger hunt.  My plan is to use it at home with our play food for a recognition tool.  I think E will get a kick out of it, since she loves to 'read' my list at the store.  

Putting Away Groceries Activity

Printable from here.  This comes with a sheet for the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.  It also comes with a printable set of foods to sort, but I opted to cut mine out of our local grocery ads because I wanted food E would recognize, that we typically purchase.  I laminated the pieces and stuck magnet tape to the back.  This is also a good practical life activity, E is able to practice (with my help, of course) figuring out where food goes.  She loves to help me put away groceries so this activity has been great!

This next set of activities go along with our 'all about me' theme. 

Girl/Boy Sorting

Got the idea for this from Sorting Sprinkles blog.  The idea is to sort the pictures (cut from a catalog, so she doesn't know these kids, so it's a bit harder) into girls and boys.  

Tooth/Mouth Activity

My spacing on these dots is terrible, but the idea is to glue marshmallows (to resemble teeth) onto the pink dots.  We will also use this as a counting activity.  But mostly we are talking about our mouth, tongue, teeth and basic dental hygiene (ironic since we are using marshmallows, eh?)

Betty Boo Boo Magnet Sheet

Printable from here.  I stuck this to a baking sheet, and laminated the bandaids + stuck on a magnet so this would be of added interest to E.  I call out a body part that needs a bandaid and E sticks it in the right spot.  You can see above that the bandaid is on an elbow and knee.  This is to work on our body part recognition.

Counting Bear Patterns

Saved from last week.  Colored counting bears used to create patterns.

Button Shape Matching

Also saved from last week.  Shape flashcards are from Dollar Tree, they are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  E has to match the color and shape buttons to the corresponding flashcard.  I kept this in the mix for this unit because there are shapes on Jesse Bear's carpet.  Also, shapes are still pretty new to E.

And of course, these last few activities are to go along with our book.

3-Part Cards

These next three printables are from here.  Same concept we have been using, some of these words are new to E this week so hopefully she is able to master them.  In a few months I plan to start cutting the word cards apart, as E starts to recognize more letters.

Tracing Sheet

Always working on correct marker holding techniques and practicing our straight lines.

Pattern Page

E is getting really good at pointing out the patterns, so hopefully she will be able to do this activity on her own soon.  Yay!

Melissa and Doug Wooden Bear Dress Up Puzzle

I bought mine from Amazon.  I was hesitant to purchase this, but E has been having a lot of fun with it so far.  As I mention in my video, I think it would be easier to write a M on the back of Mama Bear pieces, B on Baby Bear, and P or D on Papa Bear.  E gets frustrated when she can't figure out which bear the pieces go on, and she doesn't keep them organized in the box very well.  But other than that, she keeps wanting me to help her dress her bears.  😅

Hope you enjoyed our activities for this week!  Make sure you check back soon to see our art projects, sensory bin, and practical life skills that we are working on with this unit!