Bear Family Sensory Play

To discuss bears and hibernation patterns during winter I created this little setup using green lentils, a bear family, and the book Green Planet, Life In Our Woods And Forests by Moira Butterfield and Jonathan Woodward. This book has been a favourite in our home for a while.

Sensory setups like these are not typical in Montessori but they work really well for us. My daughter loves pretend play and to play with her hands and feel a variety of textures, all of which sensory play like this offers.

I love how engaged and focused she gets whenever she is doing sensory activities! We can talk about different topics, improving her language development as well as her attention span. It is so impressive to see how much information she can absorb through these activities!

I also love to see how much she is able to take away from these activities and build upon. We talked about bears’ hibernation for the rest of the day and of course she tried to build the bear family a den in different parts of the house. This is how children make sense of the world, of what they are learning – through play.

Did you know that female bears often give birth during winter and they usually have twins? They stay in the dens with their cubs until the beginning of Spring, when the temperatures are not as extreme and their cubs have more fur to protect themselves from the cold.

Cleaning up is part of the learning process, so make sure to encourage your child to tidy up after they finish playing. Model how to do it until your child feels confident enough to initiate the tidying up process independently.