Skyping the Sun Bears

Today we began preparing for our Skype call to the Sun Bears in Malaysia... The preparations involved building and painting the Sun Bear's rain forest habitat on our veranda. This experience was centered around the Sun Bear and started many conversations: the children talked about how Sun Bear's build nests on the branches of the rain forest trees. An ant family was found on our fern leaves and sparked a discussion on why we should not squash them; "the Sun Bears love to eat ants" The children are trying really hard to make connections between their experiences and those of the Sun Bears. Their imagination and fascination with animals allows them to take on the role of a Sun Bear, they pretend to climb a tree, eat bugs and imagine having a yellow marking on their chest...

                                                                                                                                                           

The outline of tree ferns, palms and grass was drawn onto the card board to guide the children, the children were instructed on how to use the paint brush to flick and swish, this motion made the lines of the ferns and grass...

  

                            

Our rain forest began to take shape with the help of, Gracie, Charlotte, Olivia and Tamryn. Charlotte thought of using the milk bottles to hold up our flowers and ferns... This also meant we could add water to the bottles to keep our rain forest alive.

                            

Conan noticed the hanging rope and thought this would be good for the Sun Bears as 'they like to climb'

                           

Later we tried to call Mr Wong over Skype and were very happy that it worked.. we were shown the rain forest habitat at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) and a Sun Bear! The Bears were eating and a little hard to see but it sure did get us excited when one stood up! We lost Mr Wong for a minute due to internet troubles but were back online again just in time for the children to ask Mr Wong many questions...

                           

Our questions were very thoughtful and reflected the children's month long exploration of the world's smallest bear...

Charlotte: "Do the babies have big yellow marks on their chest too?"
Aiken: "Do Sun Bears build tree houses?"
Matilda: "Do the Sun Bears bite?"
Malu: "Do they have spikey hair"
Asher: "Why do the Sun Bears get locked in cages?"

Thank you to Mr Wong and the BSBCC for making the effort to talk to us over the internet and show us your beautiful centre.

We will be having a raffle and a Sun Bear Day to raise more money for these special bears...