B is for Bear! Letter B: Preschool Activities and Lesson Plan

It feels like the school year is going full-swing and with it home preschool. Today’s focus is the Letter B. We’re going to get to know B as we talk, sing, read, write, and play centered around this free preschool lesson plan Letter B is for Bears!

We have been enjoying our preschool time learning together.  Just today someone asked Little #3 about school. His face broke out in a grin as he told them he does Mommy Preschool. When they asked what he likes about it, he said, “All of it!” That’s a Mommy win!

I hope your home preschool adventures are also going well and that these lesson plans are helpful for you. If you haven’t seen my quick tips for getting started with successful home preschool, check them out. This is the second in our Alphabet Lesson Plan Series.  Find the first lesson HERE: A is for Alphabet.

Feel free to use and share these plans to talk, sing, read, write, and play your way through the alphabet. These are foundational habits for raising strong readers. You can use our full preschool lesson plans, or, of course, pick individual activities to do with the Littles in your life. I am also a budget-friendly Mama, so no worries there: our activities are always easy on the pocketbook. So, let’s get to it!

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Visit the Preschool Lesson Plan Index to see what free plans are published or in the works!

Update: You can now get ALL of the Alphabet Lesson Plans, Checklists, and Printables, (plus Bonus Ideas and 75+ exclusive preschool printables!) all in one budget-friendly digital product…A to Z and Beyond! Preschool Curriculum.

Introduction

Gather on the floor for circle time and start with a welcome song. This was our second time singing our new welcome song, “Hello to All the Children of the World”. We repeated the “Hello” words first: hello, bonjour, buenos dias, G’day, guten tag, konichiwa, ciao, shallom, dobrey dyen. We watched the video as we sang to help us with the words and tune.

PLAY: Build the Letter B with Alphashapes

Several years ago, I heard my sister-in-law call it “Two-Belly B,” and the name stuck. Likewise, lowercase is a “One-Belly B.” This name makes B a letter that Little #3 already has some familiarity with. Therefore, I did this activity without showing him the letter first. However, if your little one does not recognize the letter B, show it first and then let the kids build it.

These Alphashapes are fun. You can build all the letters of the alphabet, upper and lowercase, with them. A friend bought a set a long time ago, and at the time I thought it would be neat to make our own. Well, I finally got around to it, and they were a success!

Make your own Alphashapes or get a Printable Copy of Alphashapes in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST.

Little #3 likes a challenge, so I asked him, “Do you think you can build a B using only these shapes?” I placed the shapes in front of him and let him get to work. It took him a minute to see how the shapes could work together to make a B. Then his B was backwards, so I reminded him that the bellies go on the other side. Soon enough, he had built his own B.

Next he tried a little b. Then he built a big A and little a that we learned about last week. We talked about letters having straight shapes and round shapes. He played around with a few other letters, which of course included the first letter of his own name!  😉

READ: Jamberry

Next I mentioned that one of my favorite words that begins with the letter B is book, and today, we were going to read one of my favorite books!

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where blackberries grow like weeds. Drive down any road and it’s not long until you see some brambles. When the season was right, we’d often go picking and fill Tupperware after Tupperware with fresh blackberries. Our fingers and tongues would turn purple from the juicy fruit. Nine cups could make a delicious pie, with leftovers to go on top of vanilla ice cream.

So whether it was the nostalgia evoked by the story or the captivating pictures that first caught me, 

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We reviewed the sound that letter b makes. B is for Bear! Then we read Jamberry. Afterward, we went back through the pages of the book and found one thing in each picture that begins with the letter b. We were able to find a different thing for each page and didn’t even use bear and boy until the very end!

SING: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around

I told Little #3 that today we were going to learn all about bears, and now it was time to sing a song about bears. We sang “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around.” He rolled his eyes at first, as he has sung that for years, but he was all about it when I said he could actually turn-out the real lights when we got to that part. (Oh the simple joys!)

We sang soft and loud and faster and faster. Mixing up the way you sing a song like that is a simple way to include repetition without getting bored. He loved singing really fast, jumping really high to turn out the lights, and collapsing really heavily onto the Love Sac to say goodnight. You could also make-up new things for Teddy Bear to do.

Lyrics:
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear touch the ground.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn out the light.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say goodnight!

TALK: Bears

We pulled up google images of real bears on the iPad and scrolled through them as we talked about bears. We discussed what he noticed from the pictures with added information from me. Information included different kinds of bears (grizzly, black, polar, panda), and their look (thick fur for heat, claws for eating and protection, etc.), habitat (forests, mountain slopes, cold, Asian jungle), diet (fish, berries, ants, dandelions, bamboo), and lifestyle (cubs, sleep a lot in the winter).  

I explained big words like predator/prey, carnivore/omnivore/herbivore, and mammal/reptile.  

We talked about how important it is to not feed bears and just let them be.

(FYI: My biology-teaching sister recently enlightened me with the information that bears don’t actually hibernate in the winter! Aren’t they like the classic example of hibernation?! So I looked it up, and of course, she is right. While most species of bear do go into a deep sleep and their heart rate slows, it is not true hibernation as they can be wakened by loud noises or other disturbances. Momma bears also arouse when they give birth during this state. Who knew, right?)

SING: Bear Hunt

I have vivid memories of going on lion hunts with my uncle at family reunions. In this variation, the family goes on a bear hunt. It is good rhythm practice as you can pat-clap-pat-clap during the words. It is also fun to find ways to make the different sounds of grass (rub hands together), water (wiggle lips up and down with finger), mud (pop side of cheek with finger), etc.

WRITE: Bear Mask Craft

Now it was time to become bears! We made a bear mask using a paper plate, construction paper, crayons, scissors, glue, and yarn. Little #3 decided to be the big grizzly bear. Practice writing the word “bear” and your child’s name on the back.

PLAY: Pretend to Be Bears

Listen to Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and pretend you are bears!  Lumber around the forest, pick berries, scratch your back on a tree, fish, splash in the water, etc.  What do you think happens when the music intensifies?  Are you wrestling with cubs or running fast?

EAT: Foods that Start with the Letter B

By this time, we were ready for some food.  We ate blueberry bagels and berries.  Other options include bananas, bread, beans, bran flakes, bran muffins, banana muffins, blueberries, or Teddy Grahams.

READ: Scare a Bear

Sometimes we like to read stories while we eat. (Sidenote: It can be a great diversion if you are trying to get your Littles to eat something that is not their favorite. “Take a bite so I can turn the page.”) This time I asked what Little #3 would do if he actually saw a bear. Would he try to scare it away? We watched an interactive version of Scare a Bear by Kathy-Jo Wargin that is on the Reading Rainbow app.

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Scare a Bear is a rhyming book with pictures that draw you into the story. It’s a funny book that will have everyone giggling.

PLAY and WRITE: Letter B Olympics

Lastly, Team Bears was going to compete in the B Olympics!

The B Olympics has four events all starting with the letter B. After completing each event, we added up our combined score and Little #3 wrote it on our scorecard. This was a fun way to incorporate some math and writing into our play. You can make your own scorecard or get a Free Printable B Olympics Scorecard in the FREE LESSON PLAN CHECKLIST. We completed three rounds and tried to beat our own best score.

Event #1:  Bottle Bowling

Set-up ten bottles in a bowling pin formation. You can use water bottles, two liter soda bottles, or anything else. Each player gets two turns to roll the ball and knock down as many bottles as possible. If the player gets a strike on the first ball, set the pins up again for the second ball.

Event #2:  Basketball

Each player tries to make as many shots as they can in ten tries. If you don’t have a little hoop, you can use a basket or garbage can to shoot into.

Event #3:  Bean Bag Toss

Each player tosses all eight bean bags. We were lucky to have a bean bag set with Bugs on it (so many B’s!), but if you don’t have one, flip a box over and cut holes in the bottom. For long-term use, you can sow your own bean bags, or for short-term use, you can fill a snack size zip-lock or mismatch sock with beans.

Event #4:  Baseball Throw

Set three water bottles in a row. We put them on boxes so they were about waist height. You could use chairs or just set them on the floor. Use a soft baseball, wiffle ball, or other squishy ball to try to knock over the bottles in three throws. You get one point for each bottle knocked over.

At the end, Little #3 circled the round with the highest score.  His strike on the first ball in the first round was hard for us to beat!

If this lesson plan is longer than you need, the B Olympics can be done on a different day, as a follow-up activity or just as a rainy day activity.  When Little #1 and #2 got home from school, they all had a fun time doing the events together.

SING: Goodbye

Quickly review the letter of the day. What does Letter B look like and sound like? Sing a goodbye song, and see you next time! We have more excitement to come next week as we use some cool science to explore C is for Color!

Then it’s off for the rest of your day!

The rest of our day happened to be pretty exciting, as Little #3 learned to start and ride his Bike on his own without training wheels!

Way to go Little Man!

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What worked for you?  Which activities do you think your littles will enjoy? I’d love to hear your comments on this Lesson Plan. Share pictures on social media using #lovinlifewithlittles.

Shared at Thoughtful Thursdays, Making Your Home Sing Monday, The Art of Homemaking Mondays, Mommy Moments, and Best of the Blogosphere Linky Party.

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