BFIAR: We're Going on a Bear Hunt



Book: "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen

Age: 36 months and 19 months

Verse: Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

 

This is SUCH a fun book!!! So many activities to go along with the book and it is a fun book to read with all the repetition and sound effects.  We read the book each day and did the following activities:

 

Sensory Bin:

Grass: paper, River: blue paint in sandwich bag, Mud: playdough, Forrest: sticks stuck in playdough, Snow: cotton balls and white paper shreds, Cave: big rocks and an oatmeal container covered in paper

And of course there had to be a bear for the bear hunt!!! (I think it might be a dog? It came with the Little People Farm set I got from a consignment shop last year...I think it looks like a bear!)

      

I had the beans out on the table the day before I set up the bin.  Declan started playing with them and dropping them in an empty wipes container.  :)

Another sensory bin--shredded brown and white paper (on sale everywhere right now for Easter basket stuffing)
I hid Teddy Graham bears in the paper for them to find and eat

We started out the week with a trip to the zoo on Monday!!! So happy the bears were out so we could see them.

Feed the Bear:

Lakeshore Learning has cute activities like this with a monkey and bananas--but I figured I could just make a bear out of an old cereal box! We left this out on the table all week and they all liked it a lot and played with it on their own.

A Real Bear Hunt: (not a lot of pictures because I was busy hunting with them)

bear claws from Homeschool Creations

long, wavy grass (green crate paper)

a deep, cold river (water with blue food color)

Thick, oozy mud (MUD!)

Deep, dark forrest (branches--and we have no trees, so it looks pretty pathetic.  I cut some from a bush in the front yard!)

Swirly, Whirly snowstorm (play tunnel with white sheet over and I blew bubbles at them as they came out the end of the tunnel)

No bear hunt is complete without some toilet paper binoculars!

We even ran all the way upstairs into the bed and under the covers. I put a tent over our kitchen table with a teddy bear and that was the cave.  Declan was a little confused and followed us slowly around, but Raelynn was totally into it.  It was a lot of fun!

Long, Wavy Grass:

Raelynn planted grass seed from another project that fell at the perfect time of this book! We watched it grow all week and it is definitely long and wavy! (and she is really into 'silly face' right now because of her teenage boy uncles!)

Felt Story Board:

I cut out some pieces to go along with the story.  A couple times while I read it they put the pieces up and did great.  I was hoping they'd play more to retell the story themselves during their play time but didn't really do that much.

Fun Food:

Sandwiches, pear, and chocolate chips (would have used banana but we were out!)
Another fun idea would be to make chocolate pudding for mud, sprouts for grass, cottage cheese for snowstorm, water for river and celery for forrest.  I just didn't get to being that creative this week!

Tot Time with notebook and games:
(All from Homeschool Creations)

Hide the bear (number recognition and order)

a fun board game (we used teddy grahams as our board characters)

Ordering small to large--she did this perfect!

Letter B dot page from 3 Dinosaurs (and a baby photo bomb)



 

Learning about different types of bears

        

I made a cutting practice page in a Word document.  Just different bears with thick outlines for her to cut.

Yes, they are bears--though maybe they don't look like it.  Paper plate craft with elastic band in back.

Declan is loving stickers right now.  He likes to just pile them all on top of each other but is getting better at one to one correspondence if I make marks on the paper first. It keep him occupied for quite a while!

Another funny face.  Such a goof ball! :)