We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen

Children of all ages like to go on a bear hunt. Follow this families adventure as they swish, splash, squelch, stumble, and hooo there way in search of a bear. Be brave!

Materials

Binoculars
Pictures of real bears
Alphabet bingo cards -add letters to the frames provided
Teddy Graham cookies
Bears about 4-5 inches tall
Several teddy bears
Bucket of dirt

Vocabulary

Adventure ( a trip or an experience)
Brave (to not be scared, even if it’s something kind of scary)
Gloomy (dark and cold looking)

Before Reading the Story

Ask the children if they know what it means to be brave. Let them share any acts of bravery they might have done (when it was thundering I had to be brave cause my sister was crying, I rode my bike without training wheels, I swim in the lake, Ms. K picked up the worm!)

Language Development/Speaking & Communicating;uses an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. AND Approaches to Learning/Reasoning & problem Solving; develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.

Reading the Story

Show the children the cover of the book. Read the cover and ask if anyone has ever been on a bear hunt before? Where would you look for a bear? What will happen when you find a bear? As you read the story, show the children how to make the sound actions with their hands.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; to act out stories in dramatic play; and predict what will happen next in a story.

After Reading the Story

Ask the children if they would like to go on a bear hunt. Move about your classroom following the theme of the book. Let the children help tell what you might encounter along the way and how you will have to move (a big tree, we have to climb it, a giant mountain we have to climb it, a tall bridge we have to go across it)

Discovery

Add a pictures of bears, a Teddy Bear, and binoculars to the center. If the children do not know how to use binoculars, show them by looking out the window. If you can, put a teddy bear outside for the children to focus on with the binoculars.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Music and Movement

Make enough bear cards for all the children to have one. On each card write an action (jump over the block, jump around the table, crawl under the table, and walk backwards across the rug); Hide the cards about the room . Tell the children that they are going to go on a bear hunt. Everyone must find one bear card and then meet at a designated spot. When everyone is gathered, read the directions on each bear and have the children do the action. Make sure that you write your directions to include one preposition. Let everyone do the actions if they like.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions. AND Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; builds increasing understanding of directionality, order, and prepositions of objects, and words such as up, down, over, under, top, bottom, inside, outside, in front, and behind.

Teach your children Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. Have the children do the actions as you repeat the poem.

Teddy bear teddy bear turn around

Teddy bear teddy bear touch the ground

Teddy bear teddy bear tie your shoe

Teddy bear teddy bear that will do

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multiple-step directions.

Blocks

Build a cave for a bear. Add several small teddy bears to the center.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Art

Draw a picture of your family going on a bear hunt. Don’t forget to add the bear!

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; progresses in abilities to use writing, drawing, and art tools, including pencils, markers, chalk, paint brushes, and various types of technology.

Library and Writing

Play alphabet bingo with the children. Use Teddy Graham cookies for markers. Have each child play until they fill their card, then they can eat the bears.

Literacy/Alphabet Knowledge; shows progress in associating the names of letters with their shapes and sounds.

Sand and Water

Make mud to put in the table. Does it really go squelch? How does it feel?

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; begins to use senses and a variety of tools and simple measuring devices to gather information, investigate materials, and observe processes and relationships.

Dramatic Play

Put a scarf or sheer curtain over the table and pretend that it’s a bear cave.

Creative Arts/Dramatic Play; shows growing creativity and imagination in using materials and in assuming different roles in dramatic play situations.

Math and Manipulatives

If you have teddy bear counters, put them out for the children to sort and count.

Mathematics/Patterns & Measurements; shows increasing abilities to match, sort, put in a series, and regroup objects according to one or two attributes such as shape or size.

Outdoor Play

Play Are You Sleeping Mr. Bear? Choose one child to be the bear. The bear gets in the middle of the circle and pretends to sleep. Everyone else holds hands and makes a big circle around Mr. Bear. Quietly the children in the circle ask, “Are you sleeping Mr. Bear?” and take a step closer. Mr. Bear continues to sleep. The children ask again getting closer. Continue until Mr. Bear lets out a huge ROAR and tries to grab a child while all run away shrieking. Let the children take turns being Mr. Bear.

Physical Health & Development/Health Status & Practices; participates actively in games, outdoor play, and other forms of exercise to enhance physical fitness.