We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury and published by Walker is a lovely story and kids love it. Its got repetitive words and phrases, it can be read in a sing songy way and the pictures are fantastic with a mixture of colour and black and white. I love reading it and having a good look at the pictures before I turn the page.
Activities
A bear hunt inspired meal
Iced biscuits
Bear toast
Indoor bear hunt
Make a map
Make some binoculars
Paper plate bear
Senses discussion
Outdoor bear hunt
Make a sensory trail
Animals discussion
Camping in the garden
Cooking/Food
The book is all about hunting for a bear but the family of mum, dad and 3 children travel through lots of different things on their journey. If you wanted to do a whole meal based on the book you could do Toad in the Hole as the bear in the cave, with gravy as the mud and green beans and broccoli as the grass and trees (forest). Then for dessert you could do jelly and ice cream as the river and snow storm. As you are all eating the meal you could talk to your child/children about the book and what each of the foods you have cooked represents. For a dessert or snack you could bake biscuits and your child/children can decorate them with all the different things the family encountered on the way. They went through, grass (green icing and green sprinkles), a river (blue icing and blue shiny sprinkles), mud (chocolate icing/chocolate spread with chocolate drops), tree biscuits with green icing and smarties/skittles as the berries), snow storm (white icing with dry icing scattered over the top) and then went in a cave and saw a bear. The children can be as creative as they want with these (a good time to use up whatever hasn't been used). For a breakfast type activity you could do toast with peanut butter or chocolate spread and then your child children could make it into a bear using bananas for the ears and nose and blueberries for the eyes and mouth.
Indoor
There are lots of lovely indoor activities that can go alongside this book. Of course you could do an indoor bear hunt. Your child/children could use different textures to make the different places the family went through. Using big sheets of paper you could glue real grass on, you could use tissue paper for the river or collage using an old blue piece of cloth cut into squares. For the mud if you mix sand with brown paint it will give the mud texture and seem more realistic. For the forest, trees can be made using the inside of toilet rolls or kitchen rolls, paint them brown and then add green leaves cut out of green paper or collected from the garden. For the snow storm you can make snowflakes by cutting white paper in to circles, folding them up and then then cutting different shapes out of them. If you have the room you could dangle these from above so your child/children can walk through them. Finally you could get your child/children to turn a box into a cave with some paint and then they can hide a teddy bear in there. If your child/children want to feel more prepared for their bear hunt they could make a map using the materials as above or just by drawing them with their crayons. They could make some binoculars using the inside of toilet rolls. Glue them together, paint and add some ribbon so they can hang them around their neck. Your child/children could make a bear using a paper plate, brown crayons, or paint and some black paper to make the face and brown paper for the ears. During these activities you can talk about the story, the different sounds used in the book and the different things that could be felt. This will help increase your child's vocabulary and help them think about our senses and how much we use them without realising.
Outdoor
You of course could do a bear hunt outside, in your garden or out and about and this will encourage your child/children to use their imagination and good acting skills (especially pretending to shiver as they go through the snow storm). You could discuss with your child/children the meaning of over, under and through and why they couldn't go over or under each obstacle. You could set up an obstacle course where your child/children could go over, under and through things. This can just be created with things from your house like chairs, a blanket, toys etc. You could make sensory trail using large plastic trays or containers that you can fill with different things. You could put grass in one, water in another, mud and water mixed together in another, leaves in another or they could just walk through the leaves on the floor if you already have some (save on containers/trays) and cold water mixed with toilet paper for the snow storm. Then you can make a cave and put a teddy bear in at the end. Your child/children can then walk in the boxes or on the trays without shoes and socks on and talk about the story and what they can feel. You can discuss what other animals might live in the different place that the family go through and the different noises heard. You could also camp in the garden with your child/children and listen to the noises that they hear at night. Don't forget to read 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' as the bedtime story.
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