BOOK LIST
“Wow, spring has come! I’ve missed my friends!”
An itty-bitty mouse said.
And he tiptoed to his friends to wake them up.
A bear is sleeping, a bear is sleeping, in a cave, in a cave.
“Wake up my dear friend, wake up my dear friend.
Spring has come, spring has come.”
A turtle is sleeping, a turtle is sleeping, in a burrow, in a burrow. “Wake up my dear friend, wake up my dear friend. Spring has come, spring has come.”
“Flip-flap butterfly! Let’s go together!”
A hedgehog is sleeping, a hedgehog is sleeping, in a log, in a log.
“Wake up my dear friend, wake up my dear friend.
Spring has come, spring has come.” “Happy spring!”
https://www.nps.gov/articles/when-bears-wake-up.htm
When spring arrives and the snow begins to melt, bears start to wake up after months of hibernation. It is an exciting time of the year for bears and park visitors.
When bears emerge from their dens, understandably hungry, they immediately begin to search for food. And there is plenty to eat. Receding snow reveals vegetation rich in nutrients. Winter kill – deer, elk, moose or anything else that may fancy a bear’s taste buds, are easy pickings. It’s an important time of the year for a bear as it begins the process of nourishing itself, continually gorging on food throughout the year in preparation for hibernation in the fall.
For visitors beginning their spring and summer vacations, the emergence of bears means a chance to see a bruin in its natural habitat, its home. But it also means that another food source presents itself to bears – the food you may accidentally (or intentionally) leave behind or provide.
One of the many reasons people visit national parks with bears is to experience a wild place capable of supporting healthy populations of black and grizzly bears. When visitors become careless and do not properly store their food, bears are undoubtedly going to find it; their sense of smell is amazing. When visitors feed bears, it’s a recipe for trouble. If bears become used to approaching people and eating human food (we call that habituation), the bear no longer seeks the natural food it is supposed to be foraging for. This creates a management and safety problem for park visitors and bears. While park staff work to manage bears and visitors, sometimes there is a need to remove a bear from a park. Imagine what that does to the ecosystem and your experience as a visitor coming to see a bear. For many, it means the park experience is diminished, and the ecosystem isn’t as intact.
When we visit a park with bears, we are entering their home. As guests, proper behavior and etiquette on our part can contribute to a safe and enjoyable visit for us as our hosts. The National Park Service encourages you to learn more about bears in parks.
Making Observations
The children selected one gummy bear and dropped it into their cup of water. The children smelled the water, smelled the bear, and even asked to taste the bear. I told them if they could wait until after we completed our gummy bear science that I would give them each a gummy bear to taste…
Making Predictions
I asked the children to tell me what they think might happen to the bear if we let it sit in the water for a few days. As the children told me their observations and predictions, Mrs. Courtney quickly jotted their thoughts down on a sheet of paper…
After making our observations and predictions, the children set their gummy bears aside for the weekend…
I checked in on the gummy bears all throughout the weekend. I too was curious to know what would happen to them. I didn’t know if they would fall apart, dissolve, or get bigger since I had modified the candy from the book and since we had to leave them over an entire weekend which for us is four whole days…
When the children came back to school, they immediately went to see what had happened to their gummy bears and we had our follow-up discussion…
Exploring our Sense of Smell
The children wanted to smell their water and some asked to even taste the water. We didn’t taste it but we did smell it and it smelled very sweet…
Making Comparisons
I gave each child a new gummy bear so they could compare their bear in the water with one that hadn’t been in the water (and then they got to eat their new gummy bear). The children looked at their gummy bears on the light table and on our regular table…
We discovered that our gummy bears had bubbles all over them. (The bubbles will go away once you actually touch the gummy bears and put them back into the water – so don’t touch too early!) We also discovered that our red gummy bears had slightly changed the water color but the other colors of gummy bears didn’t noticeably change the water color at all…
We also discovered that our gummy bears were floating in the water. I dropped a new gummy bear in the water to remind the children how the gummy bears were not floating before…
We also discovered that our gummy bears had definitely grown larger. They had grown at least twice the size of the original gummy bear size and they were now almost see-through…
Exploring our Sense of Touch
We wrapped up our gummy bear science by using our hands to feel our gummy bears. We discovered that our gummy bears were squishy, cold, and they even bounced a bit when we dropped them on the table…
The children were then invited to squish their gummy bears up if they wanted and then toss them out into the trash…
I really didn’t mean for this post to go so long but I hope you enjoyed our gummy bear science as much as we did and will be able to give it a try, too! Perhaps you would rather use gummy worms. We will be using gummy worms this spring for sure!
- Teddy Bear cookies (homemade or commercial teddy bear cookies)
- Bowl or other small container
- Milk
- Paper to chart students’ guesses
- Markers OR crayons
- Timer or stopwatch.
Explain to the students that you are going to explore how long it takes teddy bear cookies to transform from a solid and dissolve (melt) in a container of milk.
Have each child make a prediction as to how long it will take the teddy bear cookies to dissolve. Chart the responses/guesses from the children on a separate sheet of paper.
Place the cookie(s) in a container of milk and start a timer. Have the children observe and gently feel the cookies as they begin to dissolve. Explore the following questions with your kids or students: https://84f986637ed527e380d0d8830ef52a6f.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
- What happens to the cookie(s) when they begin to absorb the milk?
- What does the cookie feel like when it is starting to dissolve? Explore descriptive words with the children as they discuss what the cookie feels like (example: mushy, soft, squishy, grainy, etc.).
Stop the timer when the cookie is dissolved (or mostly dissolved) and see if any of the children had a guess that was relatively close.
For younger children, do the activity several times and discuss the concept of “passing” time. Be sure to invite the children to explore the stopwatch or timer and discuss how it works. Compare the timer to the hands (or digital display) on a clock, a watch, or a stopwatch at home or in the classroom. It is fun to explore how different timers work.
Extension idea for older children: Place the students’ guesses in order from shortest to longest time.
For young children: arrange the students’ guesses by seconds or by placing all guesses under one minute in one category, 1-2 minute guesses in a second category, 2-3 minute guesses in a third category, and so on.
Extension idea: Use different types of liquids to see if it has an effect on how fast or slow the teddy bear cookies will melt. Other suggested liquids could include: chocolate vs. white milk, cold water vs. hot water, juice, or hot chocolate.
Caeli's Words 