Grades 1 and 2

MATH & SCIENCE

Bear Bucks: Beginning Economics

The Berenstain Bears exhibit provides a bustling environment with Mama Bear’s Quilt Shop, Papa Bear’s Woodworking Shop, the Bear Family Restaurant, Farmer Ben’s Farm, and Dr. Bearson’s Dentist Office. Students play the part of business owners and consumers when they withdraw money from the bank and engage in role-play in the exhibit. This is a fun way for students to apply basic math skills about dollar denominations, adding, subtracting, and beginning multiplication.
1 hour MST: 3 LA: 1, 3, 4 Career Standards 1, 2
Available Tuesday through Friday

My Smart Parts Are Working!

Brains think in many different ways. How do you like to use your brain? In TimeLab and DanceLab, each student learns how to turn his or her brain “on,” get it in gear, and use it to learn. Students learn how to talk about their strengths as learners.
1 1/2 hours MST: 4 LA: 1, 3, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

NEW! Predators and Protection for Junior Scientists

By popular demand, this Predators and Protection lessonhas been adapted for younger scientists. Students enter the fabulous Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden^® with a palette of colors, a keen eye for design, and a splash of curiosity, and return with some surprising discoveries! Students explore the ways that butterflies protect themselves by observing butterflies in action, students then become predators and protectors themselves as they learn and play through a movement game that brings the colorful and amazing art of the butterfly world alive.
1 1/2 hours MST: 1 Arts: 1
Available Tuesday through Friday

NEW! Tinkertoy Expedition

Calling all aspiring inventors! There’s no limit to what children can do using imaginative thinking in the TINKERTOY®: Build Your Imagination™ exhibit. Students will create their own Tinkertoy inventions, construct and test a wind-powered Tinkertoy model, build channels to experiment with filtration, collaborate on a design using linked computers, and more.
1 hour MST: 1, 7
Available Tuesday through Friday

Very Hungry Butterflies

What do butterflies do when they are hungry? Students explore this and other questions as they observe real butterflies in the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden^®. Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the springboard for this imaginativeexperience. Children focus on the butterfly stage of the life cycleand take on the role of butterflies in a fun movement activity.
1 hour MST: 4 LA: 1
Available Tuesday through Friday

SOCIAL STUDIES

Growing Up in 19th-Century America

How were values, traditions, and ideas transmitted to children at the turn of the 19th century? Using the museum’s collections, students role-play home life and life at school during this period. Costumes, games, toys, artifacts, and photographs illustrate the cultural, social, and educational values of the time.
1 1/2 hours SS: 1, 2 LA: 1, 3, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Kitchen Helpers in the 19th Century

What was life like before fast food, washing machines, and microwave ovens? Students visit One History Place and learn for themselves as they role-play household chores expected of children a long time ago, such as pumping water, tending the stove, and using an icebox.
1 hour SS: 1 LA: 1, 3, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Playthings and Pastimes from Long Ago

What did children play with before the era of plastics, batteries, computers, and videos? Students visit One History Place to learn about early 20th-century America by role-playing the games and pastimes of this bygone era.
1 hour SS: 1 LA: 1, 3, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Train Travel Changes the World!

Students take a journey into the fascinating world of train travel in One History Place. Children experience trains, role-play the jobs of railroad workers, and learn how the introduction of railroad travel changed people’s lives. Add a ride on the Strong Express Train for an additional $1 per person.
1 hour SS: 1 LA: 1, 2, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

LANGUAGE ARTS

Awesome Adventures

Students become the characters in their own adventure skits. Using the interactives in the Adventure section of Reading Adventureland and the formula for great adventure stories, students create an exciting skit and perform it on the bow of the good ship “Courageous"—a not-so-seaworthy vessel!
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4 Arts: 1
Available Monday and Tuesday

Ernie Sounds It Out!

Ernie has lost his letters! Children help Ernie find them by using environmental clues to point the way to letters hidden in Sesame Street. During their search, students practice letter identification and sound recognition. This lesson can be expanded to include construction of word families.
1 hour LA: 1, 2
Available Tuesday through Friday

NEW! Making Connections with the Berenstain Bears

This playful introduction to the strategy of making connections will enhance reading comprehension. Using guided activities set in the Berenstain Bears exhibit, students will discover self-to-exhibit connections between their own background knowledge and the things they see and do in Bear Country. Students will also browse Berenstain Bears books and share self-to-text connections.
1 hour LA: 1, 3, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Once Upon a Time…

Transform into a character from one of six stories in the dramatic Fairy-Tale section in Reading Adventureland: Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Three Little Pigs, or Cinderella. Students become the cast as they select a setting, retell, and reenact one of the above classic tales.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Available Monday and Tuesday

That’s Nonsense!

Students play with language in the Word Play Station or Ultimate Dream Machine of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s astonishing upside-down house. Their play leads them to create original jokes, jingles, tongue twisters, or riddles. These young comics showcase their creative humor at the “That’s Nonsense Talent Show” to close the lesson in Reading Adventureland’s fun-filled Nonsense section.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Available Monday and Tuesday

Using Drama to Develop Language

Through role-play and fantasy in Kid to Kid, students build verbal and written language skills. Students act out different jobs at the kid-sized post office and create short improvisational scenes on the “Act Too” stage, guided by museum teachers and chaperons.
1 hour LA: 1, 4
Available Tuesday through Friday

Who Dunnit?

A mystery at the Mystery Mansion needs to be solved and your students are the detectives we need! Through deductive reasoning, prediction, mapping skills, and collaboration, detectives use their clues to crack the code of “Who Dunnit?” in the captivating Mystery section of Reading Adventureland.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4 MST: 4, 7
Available Monday and Tuesday

Wings of Fantasy

Inspired by the fantastical costumes in the Wizard’s Wardrobe, a magical wand, or an original potion created in the Alchemist’s Laboratory in the Fantasy section of Reading Adventureland, students begin to develop a fantasy character. The Wing Shop by Elvira Woodruff fuels creative imaginations as students decide on their character’s source of magical power, good deeds, and method of travel to unknown places.
1 1/2 hours LA: 1, 4
Available Monday and Tuesday

Health

Health Nuts

What foods do we need every day to be healthy? Meet Francine, a life-size puppet who can’t keep up with the kids at recess and falls asleep during school. What can she do to have more energy? Students take on the challenge of helping Francine to become healthy. Using the Kid’s Food Guide Pyramid, students will shop in Super Kids Market and have fun packing a healthy lunch for Francine. Together, Francine and her new friends learn a “Fit as a Fiddle” cheer to help them all remember what it takes to be healthy.
1 hour Health: 1 LA: 1 Arts: 1
Available Tuesday through Friday