If you are looking for an engaging and hands-on extension activity to the book We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, you are in luck! I have not yet come across a young child that does not absolutely adore this story. The repetitive sentences make it easy for children to read along while having tons of fun.
This activity is great for improving your young learner’s speaking and sequencing skills. It will also develop their fine-motor and visual discriminations skills.
We’re Going On A Bear Hunt Extension Activity: A Moving Book!
This activity takes quite a bit of prep-time, but it is so worth it! It will probably take 30mins to an hour each day for a week to complete the whole moving book.
Cut a strip in all the A4 sheets of paper (about 2 inches from the bottom) with a cutter. Start about 2 inches from the left and stop about two inches from the right. This is where the children will put the stick-puppets through (from the back) to give the impression of a moving stick-puppet.
What you need:
- An A3 sheet of colored paper for each child (folded in half for the book cover)
- A skewer stick for each child (sharp sides cut off beforehand)
- Four sheets of A4 white paper for each child (thicker paper works better)
- One sheet of A4 blue paper per child
- 2 sheets of A4 black paper per child
- A set of googly eyes for each child
- Blue cellophane paper (for the river)
- Green colored paper (to tear in pieces for the trees in the forest)
- Brown colored paper cut in strips (1 – 2 inches wide) for the tree trunks
- White chalk (snowstorm)
- Brown paint (mud)
- Tissue paper torn into pieces (also for the mud)
- A4 green paper (cut into 3 strips lengthwise (for the grass)
How to use this resource:
First of all, make sure to watch this performance by the author of the book, Michael Rosen. I have watched it more than 10 times and can watch it 100 times more! The kids, of course, love it even more than me.
Page 1: Long, Wavy Grass
For the first page of the moving book, give each child a strip of green paper, and show them how to cut it. You can use the image below as an example.
Children stick the uncut part of the ‘grass’ at the bottom of the first page. When they are done they can decorate the page by drawing the sky, some clouds and the sun. They can also copy the word ‘grass’ somewhere on the page, if the teacher feels up to it.
Page 2: A Deep, Cold River
To decorate the ‘river page’, give each child a square of blue cellophane paper and ask them to cut it into pieces. When they are done, they paste it onto the river page. Once again, the children can copy the words ‘a river’ somewhere on the page.
Page 3: Thick, Oozy Mud
The kids loved completing the mud page, and made a lot of hilarious comments. Some were truly disgusted by it all!
First of all, they tore tissue paper into strips and stuck this on the ‘mud page’. They then painted over it with brown paint, which gave it a proper muddy look. When it all dried, the little stick puppets had loads of fun squelching and squerching through the thick, oozy mud.
Page 4: A Big, Dark Forest
This page was quite easy to complete, and still the end effect looked great! Children cut brown paper into long strips and paste them onto the ‘forest page’. These are the tree trunks. They then tear green paper into tiny pieces and p stick them at the top of the tree trunks. And you have a deep, dark forest!
Page 4: A Swirley, Whirley Snowstorm
Show the children a picture of what a snowstorm looks like and ask them to draw one with white chalk on the blue A4 paper, anyway they want. My kids got really into this activity, and some of the pages turned out completely white :).
Page 4: A Narrow, Gloomy Cave
On the ‘cave page’ the children stick a pair of googly eyes somewhere over the page, with a square piece of paper that can lift up over it. During the re-tell of the story, the stick puppets tip toes through the cave, and when the bear finally shows his face, lift up the flap.
And finally, it is time for the stick-puppet to get back to his house. The kids all go ballistic at this point and all that can be seen is a flutter of pages!
click on the images below For some more fun book extension activities.
