Students brought a teddy bear/stuffed animal to school. The day began with some instructions: the bears may accompany the students and 'help' them throughout their school day. The bears may sit with them, read with them, and do their activities with them. However, if the teddy bear misbehaves, it needs to go into their cubby for a time-out. After a time, when the bear is ready to behave again, it may rejoin the student.
The bear must also remain in the classroom for the day. So, while everyone is out for recess or in the washroom, the bear sits on the student's chair and waits for them to return. This all worked out great, and the teddy bears behaved very well. They even sat still on the children's laps at the carpet!
During whole group time, I asked my students if they all brought in a bear. They said yes. I asked them if their bears were all the same, and they realized that every single one was different. I asked them what was different about them, and this began our lesson of sorting:
Clothes vs. No Clothes
Hats vs. No Hats
Antlers vs. No Antlers :)
We also sorted Bows vs. No Bows and Bears vs. Other Animals.
Next, we sorted the bears by colour:
Finally, we organized the bears by size, from smallest to biggest:
These sorting activities are a fantastic springboard for translating data into graphs...which we will be doing this week.