B is for Bear: Panda Bear, Panda Bear

The Lil Divas are learning all about Bears this week. It's one of my favorite themes because it includes some of my favorite animals - Polar Bears, Panda Bears, Brown Bears and of course a bear theme would not be complete without including Teddy Bears!

We began with Panda Bears and have been reading some wonderful books that were also full of wonderful information on these adorable bears.

Here are some of the books we have read:

Tracks of a Panda by Nick Dowson

A Panda's World by Caroline Arnold

Panda Kindergarten by Joanne Ryder

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr

Paper Plate Panda Craft:

What You Need:

2 paper plates - we used 9in. plates but you can also use 6 in.

Black construction paper

Colored Consturction paper - choice

Wiggly eyes

Glue

Black marker

Scissors

What To Do: (I did not take many pictures during the craft)

1. Using the black construction paper cut out 2 oval shapes for the surrounding eyes, 2 ears, 2 arms and 2 leg paws. Using the colored constuction paper cut out a bow shape (if desired) - this can be used on the head to make it a girl or as a bow tie to make the panda a boy. This piece can be left out if desired. My Lil Divas wanted girl panda's so this was what we came up with.

2. Cut some of the edge off of 1 of the paper plates to make it just a little smaller - this will be the head and the remaining paper plate will be the body.

3. To make the panda's face - glue the ears, nose and black outline of the eyes. Add the wiggly eyes on top of the black eye shapes. Use your black marker to make a mouth.

4. Glue the arms & feet paws to the larger plate

5. Attach head to body and add bow (if desired) to head or body

6. Let dry

Here are our finished girl pandas!

Writing:

Tracing & Writing "Panda Bear"

I used a Panda Bear Tracer Page from http://www.twistynoodle.com/. I love that you can customize their sheets!

Letter B Practice:

Do-a-Dot Letter Bb from http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/



Letter B Foam Puzzle

I used a template from abcteach.com (available by subscription only) to cut out foam shapes for a B Puzzle. The Littlest Diva really enjoyed working on this and did it over & over again. I plan to make this for each letter for her. She enjoyes puzzles.

Snack: Panda Egg

This snack is made using a hardboiled egg! It consists on 1 had boiled egg, 1 dark grape (cut in half & attached with half of a toothpick - use caution when eating) for the ears and for the face I used black sparkle gel (like icing). It was an easy & cute snack to celebrate the panda bear!

Movie:

We also watched The Amazing Panda Adventure - a great family film about the perils of the endangered pandas in China.

We had fun learning about the panda bear - be sure to come back & see what fun we cook up next!

Don't forget to check out our Polar Bear and  Brown Bear activities!

Bern

**I have linked this to Read, Explore, Learn , Tot Tuesdays and Show & Tell  **