Bear Essentials & Silver Bear Centre

not finished yet

We almost pieced everything together but we wanted some time for a  game at the end of the session. Next week is going to be the end of the project and we are going to invite another class room to join us to celebrate our achievements.

I put different bear masks on the table and the boys were working in teams. I was reading out questions like ” I love to eat bamboo” or “Iam the smallest bear of all the bear species” and who knew the answer had to put the mask on his head and tell us what bear are we talking about.

The group with the most answers is going to do a little presentation to our visitors next week.

As you know we also adopted a polar bear for a year through WWF. As part of our celebration every boy is going to make a polar bear for themselves next week. At least they have something to take home with them and something to keep.

Next week you can see our finished project which will be added as a custom header to the boys blog.

View here>>>

Yes that is the tittle of our project agreed by majority vote. Other tittles where ” Blizzard the king of the Arctic” or “Save the Arctic”. I personally think that this project tittle communicates the whole project very well.

drawing shape of an ice floe

Today we were trying to put all the different pieces together. To be able to do this we had to work on our ice floe first. Some boys were involved in the drawing. A lot of them were active in the cutting. And others covered the ice floe with material.

The use of more dangerous tools like the knife and sharp nails caused a larger attraction for the boys and everyone wanted to try it.

cutting our ice floe

Another group was working with Caitriona covering another piece with hand dyed silk fabric – our arctic water. The next stage was to decide how to attach all the  friendship bears. They are going to form a circle around the ice because that is was they are trying to protect. Read next article to view what else we did today.

Caitriona working with the boys

we cover it with white material

One of the boys is working on Blizzard’s nose. He is using black thread and a large doll makers needle to embroider the nose.

At the beginning of our project we agreed special terms with the boys how to use and behave when applying more dangerous tools in school then usually. One of the conditions where that everyone using a needle had to sit down. We also agreed on sanctions for not keeping to our terms.

Sounds strict but when working with 23 boys in a classroom environment, on a project that requires a lot of skills but at the same you like to experience every child to develop those skills, safety is very important.

Everyone had a go with Blizzard. Some of the boys were stuffing his legs while others where working on his head. At the end of the session we joint all the parts up with his body. A bonus was the growler we inserted in his body. Some boys thought he sounded more like a cow then a bear.

The boys where also personalising their little friendship bears. When I arrived everyone had made a flag of the country their bear is symbolising. We are going to leave the flags until the end to see where they best fit into the whole project. The boys added a lot of different attributes to their bears like, scarves, medals, hair and a class eye for the pirate.

When I came home I took a picture of all the friendship bears (we have attached them to each other) with Blizzard in the middle.

Blizzard is made from material of an old coat. The friendship bears are from material the boys brought in. Imagine what you can recycle and turn into new use or into art & craft ideas.

At Bear Essentials Summer School in July we are planning to make designer bags from strong fiber material ( read more )

We had lots of fun today. We have two more sessions left to finish our project. We will share the result with you. For this week the boys have to come up with a tittle for the project.

Craft in the classroom project