Going on a Bear Hunt

When I taught school as a special ed teacher, I didn't have a curriculum. I just taught to each child's IEP's and I had to make up all of my lessons. While the vast majority of my day was spent teaching functional skills, we still did fun creative units. We'd often have a theme of the week or even sometimes the month and this was what we'd base circle time, crafts, and center time or other activities on. One of my favorite ways to do this was to build off a book... I love to read, love children's books, and it was an easy way to come up with ideas to me. One of my favorites was Going On a Bear Hunt. It's an adorable little book.

Each child made their own bear hunt book. Cort's at such a fun age to do these types of things with after a quick trip to Hobby Lobby we started our own Bear Hunt book. We've read the book millions of times before so this was also a great way to sort of bring something new to an "old" book. I'd thought I'd share if anyone else wanted to do it!!! There are tons of things to teach through it....sensory stuff, cutting, gluing, mixing colors, weather, environments, the list goes on and on.... you can tailor it how ever you want. It's also great for a wide range of ages and ability levels. If you're interested....

Grass....Have your child cut the grass, curl some of it around a pencil to make to a little more 3 dimensional.



River...Mix equal parts elmer's glue and shaving cream. Add food coloring. Paint with it as you would with normal paint and it will be puffy when it dries.


Mud...Step into a tray or plate of brown paint and walk across several sheets or one large sheet of paper for the mud. Cut out the right size for the book or have him step on the constrcution paper as their last one.


Forest -Tear paper for the leaves. Cut trunks, ground, etc. and glue.


Snow Storm -Swirl glue on colored paper and then rub 2 pieces of styrofoam together over the paper and then sprinkle glitter.



Cave... if your child is old enough they can draw the bear. Otherwise cut out one( you could let them color it)

We did one page per day over a week or 2. We read the book together each time before we made a new page. He's super proud of his book and sometimes we read it instead of the original!!! It's been hanging on the art display we made for his room... another super easy thing to make...string, clothes pins, and wooden cut outs from your local craft store. They sell them at Land of Nod and I've been meaning to make one of our own for a while and finally got around to it. This is a small version because of the space I had to put it in.




Okay - there's my little craft activity suggestion for what ever it's worth!!

Cohen turned 15 months old today!! Working on his post....