Porridge Playdough for Baby Bear!

It took several years to master this playdough.  The traditional recipes for oatmeal playdough are sticky and - honesty - a mess to deal with.   I adapted my basic playdough recipe and have created a perfect porridge playdough!  This dough has a hint of vanilla and cinnamon and is sure to give hours of wonderful play!

For a FREE download of this recipe - go to the bottom of this post!

My Porridge Playdough Recipe

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 rounded tablespoons cream of tarter

2 rounded tablespoons of cinnamon

1 1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoons of vanilla

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Step One

Heat liquid ingredients over medium high heat in a large pan.

Step Two

While liquids are heating, mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

IMPORTANT TIP:  I do not add oats to the cooked dough! 

Step Three

When liquids are beginning to boil, dump in dry ingredients.  Mix in while stirring.  It may seem like you have a big mess on your hands.  Keep stirring and folding in the dough as it cooks.  I like to use a spatula for stirring (one that is heat resistant).  Do not overcook.  It will begin to darken.  I take my spatula and press the dough down to cook it quickly.  (Less than 3 minutes) Remove from heat.

Step Four

 Dump dough on to countertop or cutting board.

Knead it like bread dough - folding it in and punching it down.  Do this until it is silky smooth.

Your dough will be smooth.

Step Five

Put out 2 cups of old fashioned oats.   This is very important.  DO NOT USE quick oats.  This will result in sticky, yucky dough.  Use the slow cooking old fashion oats.

Let the children work the oats into the cooked dough.

Baby Bear says it is just right!!

DOWNLOAD of this recipe for your Teacher's Notebook!

Fictional Bears vs. Real Bears

One of the strong impulses of the Common Core Standards is the use of non-fiction reading.  When I work with the fairy tales like the Three Bears - I think it is a wonderful opportunity to compare real bears vs. the three bears.  We research bears by reading non-fiction books from the school library.  This integrates science into the curriculum in such a powerful way.

We make two habitats:  Real bears and The Three Bear's home out of paper bags


These sweet paper bag houses are from www.charlottesfancy.com.

Each child will make a Three Bear's house. To make the paper bag houses:

• Fill the lunch bags with newspaper. 
• Fold down the top.
• Pick a scrapbook or construction paper for roof.
• Fold over top and staple.
• Cut out windows, doors and other details from various papers.
• Use markers and crayons to add features.

How to make paper bag bear habitats:

• Method One: Teacher Prepared
• Method Two: Child made

We discuss the life cycle of the brown bear and important facts.  Again, to translate what we discuss and create - I provide a graph to document the children's understandings of fictional and real bears:


Click on graph to download both papers.



Another way of looking at the differences between real and fictional bears is with a sentence graph:


Click to download graph.
 
I like to put this on the smart board and fill it out with the class.  I use these graphs all year long. ( I eventually have the children writing sentences from them in the second semester. )   I read each sentence out loud after we are done filling it out.  ""Bears can hunt.  Bears can climb." etc.

Here is an example of one filled out:



I will fill the same graph out with the three bears to compare the differences.



Here is another little poster I made to help discuss the differences between real bears and their lives and the Three Bears fairy tale.

Free Emergent Readers for the Goldilocks and the 3 Bears!

Woot!  I am so excited!  

I am going to start sharing some of my favorite fairy tale resources.  

It is going to be a stampede of freebies!  

These are print-ables that I have created for my classroom use.  These are for your personal use and may not be resold.

Here are my personal beginning sight word readers. These are very simple for the first of the year. Click on image to download.   These two readers have been created to print two booklets at a time.  Just copy them, cut in half and staple them together!  Easy peasy.

Free Readers:

                                      Click on images to download!

Free Sequence Cards: 
These cards are great for checking comprehension.  I like to laminate them.


                                    Click on images to download.

Free Storytelling Cards:



Large set of storytelling cards!  These are great for making a story pathway - let children walk the images to retell the story.

Click here for a small set of storytelling cards.

The Power of Table Puppets and Retelling a Story!

This is pure educational magic.  Pure gold!  Give it a try if you have not.  It is very simple to do.  I have made basic table puppets for the children to use but you could use dollhouse dolls and brown bear figurines.  The children just need something to "pretend" the character with.  They are not picky!

Here's the deal:  set up a small stage with all sequences of a traditional fairy tale like the Three Bears (three dollhouse chairs, three dollhouse beds, and a dollhouse table with three bowls.)  Be creative.  I think it is so healthy to show children how to use things like blocks and boxes in setting up a little puppet show. 

I always do the first two puppet shows to demonstrate how to do it and to teach the children how to be a good audience.  Then I start calling the children up to put on a "puppet show" for us.   It will bring you to tears!  They do such an amazing job!

IMPORTANT:  Remember I tell a main story in my class for two weeks.  The children hear me tell the story of the Three Bears orally, in puppet shows --- I read every version of the book I could find including extended and altered stories.

Educational Benefit:  The student demonstrates an understanding of story structure - the beginning, the middle and the end;  the sequence of events and dialogue; and sometimes, the capacity to extend and expand upon the story.

Here is a retelling from one of my students:

FREE Three Bears Sight Word Download

This is a sight word recognition set I created for the classic fairy tale, "The Three Bears."  I have a set for each of the major kindergarten fairy tales.  I like this format because it honors the various levels the children are at:

•   For the pre-emergent reader - it provides the simple practice of "sight" recognition which builds visual perceptual skills critical to reading.
•   It has repetitive text at an emergent+ reading level.   
•   It builds and repeats a set of basic sight words.  
•   It is a familiar story that the children have prior knowledge of and can draw upon that knowing.  

 Enjoy!  I will keep posting these if you like them.

Disclaimer:  I did not create this set with the idea of sharing it.  The words used have been taken from an old 1916 primer reader I have (I have a collection of old readers).  The images are from assorted sources that I did not note. 

Three Bears Sight Word Set