Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

Hands-down, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? was Micah’s absolute favorite so far. I think it was a combination of him being developmentally ready, and the fact that he could go through his entire day making choices like Jesse Bear. Whatever the reason, it was obvious how proud and excited he was to make ‘big’ decisions about his day.

I think I’ve also grown in my homeschooling knowledge and experience. We’ve played with a couple of different structures so far and have really homed in on something that works for us. I’ve also got a lot more knowledgeable about using the library and incorporating supplementary material. We are more than halfway through the year and I just can’t believe how much we have grown together!

Our Style

We kept the structure we have been doing for these last few books, because it really seems to work for us. So, we have our morning routine which I call morning time, or you may have heard of as morning basket. We do actually put all of our morning time stuff in a cute little basket because it helps me stage and organize our morning time, but it’s also super cute!

We also continued following the Before Five in a Row guide and used the Homeschool Share lapbook. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I detail the plan for our first year of homeschooling in Our School Year. But just a recap, we read a new story- which quickly becomes a favorite- every two weeks and use the Before Five in a Row guide to structure our lessons. We also supplement it with a lap book found here, and use other stories or nonfiction books, craft ideas, activities, etc. that enhance each lesson. I absolutely LOVE the Before Five in a Row program and explain more about it and our homeschool style here! 

So basically, every morning Micah and I say the Bible verse that corresponds to the book we are studying, as suggested in the Before Five In A Row guide. Most days we read a story from our Jesus storybook Bible, but sometimes we read straight from Bible and other times we do another Bible study activity. Then, we normally read a few poems or rhymes from our favorite books or library books. We have some in our home library, but I like to look for in our local library for poetry or rhymes that relate to our current book study. I try not to make the morning time too long because Micah and Skye are both still very young, but if they’re still engaged, I like to throw in a number or an alphabet activity. I just know these are things that I want to do every day, or at least four days of the week. So, it works for us to do them all in the morning. However, if they are wiggly and distracted, I keep it short and only go over the essentials. But if they are super into it, I will add in rhyming books and different games. Usually I’ll give Skyler some Crayons and a coloring book to keep her busy. Again, I keep it short and take my ques from them.

That’s it in a nutshell, at least until I refine it again, and again… and again. Anyway,

Let’s dig into our study!

Daily (Morning Time)

Bible Time

Our bible verse for this study was Proverbs 17:22a, “A joyful heart is good medicine.” And I’m so excited to say… he actually memorized it! This is Micah’s first bible verse memorized! Words cannot express how proud I am of him! I think now is the time to start memorizing the catechism!  

Alphabet

Our study letter for Jesse Bear was B- for Bear! We studied the letter B like the rest of the letters we’ve been learning. We say the letter and it’s sound, practice the capital and lower-case versions of it, and look and listen for things that start with our study letter throughout the day. I also added in an ABC laundry activity found in the Homeschool Share lapbook. We don’t do the ABC laundry every day, but it’s fun to do every once in a while.

Poetry and Rhymes

We usually read poetry and maybe a rhyming book or two every morning. For Jesse Bear, we focused on the rhymes in the story and adapted them to our own routine to come up with our own rhymes. We also read poetry on bears, and the Homeschool Share lapbook came with a rhyming activity we did one day. But mostly the poetry and rhyming portion of our morning time was usually very silly, making up our own rhymes.

Games

During our morning time, I would break up some of our readings and memory work with little games. In Jesse Bear, he plays Peekaboo with his blue blanket. So, we would play Peekaboo, Patty Cake, Ring Around the Rosie, London Bridge is Falling Down, Pop Goes the Weasel, or the Hide Bear game from Homeschool Share. It was a very effective tool to maintain his and even Skye’s attention.

Looping

In addition to these daily studies, we looped a few subjects. Looping just means doing one or two activities of a subject on your list a day, going down the list of subjects, and repeating the list until the week is over. So, if you have a list of four subjects, you can have several activities for each subject, and as you repeat the subject, you just choose different activities.

For Jesse Bear, we had four subject areas with several activities within each. Below I’ll list the subjects and activities in no particular order. There’s a ton of ways to study Jesse Bear, these are just things we had fun with!

Colors, Patterns, and Combinations

I made cut outs of shirts, pants, shoes, and hats from different patterned scrapbooking pages, then had Micah create outfits. I was surprised at how well he could put together a matching outfit! We talked about the different patterns and colors, what matched and what contrasted, and what looked similar verses what looked different.

For another activity, I had Micah observe the kitchen floor in Jessy Bear- there are shapes all over! I had Micah identify the shapes and did a few more shape activities with cards and felt pieces that I found at Target.

There are a lot of colorful pictures of nature in Jess Bear. So, we checked out a few big, colorful books of nature from the library. We found a few vibrant books of flowers and birds to just look at and appreciate the colors and patterns naturally found in nature.

For another pattern study, I pulled out our American flag and we talked about the patterns and colors. I used this opportunity to introduce some patriotic songs like Yankee Doodle and America the Beautiful. I brought out the American flag because Jesse Bear has a red and white striped ball with a blue part with stars, just like the American flag. Micah was able to compare the two and learn why we hang an American flag outside.

Art

For a bit of drama practice, we read Jesse Bear and acted it out. I also had him finish the rhymes after he had heard them a few times. And then we made new verses that we thought Jesse bear might experience in different situations and acted those out.

Micah also created a few really beautiful art projects that tied in lessons from our nature studies or colors and patterns studies. My favorite was his feather painting! After we observed the nature books of birds and real birds, Micah used feathers to experiment with paint. I would recommend washable paint because it might get messy!

Details

Throughout Jesse bear, we looked for loving relationships. We looked at their faces and their posture for signs of love. It wasn’t very difficult to find! There’s a particularly beautiful illustration of Mommy Bear, Daddy Bear, and Jesse Bear all looking at each other very lovingly. Homeschool Share also has a family activity in their lapbook to incorporate with this lesson.

We also played the What Can You Find game. One reading through, Micah found and counted all the bears. Another reading through, he found and counted all the flowers. And another reading through, he found different foods I would prompt him to search for. This was a good exercise to get him engaged with the story, and a great way to practice counting.

We also focused on the order and cleanliness within the book. I pointed out how Jesse Bear’s clothes were neatly folded, and all his toys were put back on the shelves before bed. Everything looked neat and tidy. And at the very end, there’s a picture of a hamper that looks just like ours with Jesse Bear’s clothes in it. So, we discussed the importance of his chore board and I helped him make his bed, remember to put his clothes in the hamper, remember to clean up after playing, and helped with meal clean up. I am happy to say that these chores have completely stuck, and we do them to this day! … Okay, not really. But we try everyday to do his basic four chores. Sometimes we get it, and sometimes I drop the ball.

Another time we talked about the bathroom and how it is decorated in swans. Appropriately so because swans are found in water. So, we talked about other things that are found in or on water. I was able to tie this lesson with other nature lessons on our schedule. 

Science

During a Detail section study, when Micah found and counted all the flowers, I supplemented it with a science lesson about flowers. I also tied these activities with the Colors and Patterns activity where Micah observed big colorful pictures of nature.

When we played the What Can You Find game for the food, we did a little nutrition study as well. We the used Jesse Bear healthy lunch activity from Homeschool Share to re-create Jesse Bear’s healthy lunch. And we also played with the healthy meal felt book that I found from Target to create healthy meals and differentiate between healthy food and junk food. 

We also ended up doing an in-depth bird study. Some of the books that we checked out for the Colors, Patterns, and Shapes activity of looking at nature books were a few really beautiful bird books. And one of the books, Feathers for Lunch, even had its own lapbook in Homeschool Share, a pleasant surprise! So, I printed out bird activities from that study, and we just focused on birds in their habitats, different kinds of birds and their colors, what birds eat, and much more. I was also able to tie in the swan and water bird study from Jesse Bear’s bathroom.

The very last page in Jesse Bear talks about the stars and the moon, so we had another mini moon and star study. We’ve done soooooo many of these studies because Micah loves everything space, so this time I tried to build on Micah’s knowledge, rather than introducing anything new. We have a few really good picture space books from Usborne books that Micah loves, and sometimes its just nice to look at pictures.  

But Most Important… Have Fun!

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? is yet another treasured book we have had the opportunity to add to our collection. It never ceases to amaze me how much we can get out of our stories! Seriously, I know I keep talking about it, but the Before Five in a Row curriculum is amazing! It’s so perfect for our pre-preschool studies! I just want to mention, though, that we don’t spend much time at all ‘studying.’ I work with Micah maybe 30 minutes to an hour, and not every day, mostly we are talking, playing, doing crafts or activities, or going places. It’s all about exposure and experience and getting his little mind thinking! Our goal is to have fun, and my goal is to make learning something fun that he wants to do and not just something he feels he must do to get good grades.