This was one of my fifteen minute focus activities.

Supplies: Real binoculars. Materials to make toy binoculars: TP tubes, – 2 per kid. Tape. Hole punch, string, scissors. Optional: stickers to decorate. Materials for scenery: white paper, one piece blue paper, crayons, be sure to have a white one for snow. Book.

Binoculars

Show them the binoculars. Explain how they’re used and how they help us to better see things that are far away.

Make binoculars: tape tubes together, punch holes, cut yarn, thread yarn through, tie knots, decorate.
Note: We had two adults supporting 8 kids. If you have less adult support, you may want to pre-prep more by cutting yarn and punching holes in advance (you could even tape the tubes in advance and just have them decorate?)

Book

Read We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Rosen and Oxenbury. (Video).*

Create Scenery

You’re going to create scenes for acting out the book: grass, a river, mud, a forest, a snowstorm, a cave, and home. It can be hard for kids to just envision things sometimes, so it might be helpful to copy the pages of the book for them to look at as they draw, or give them photos of those sorts of scenes to inspire them.

For a small class, each kid draws their own scene – just need a regular piece of paper each and assign each one to a particular scene; for a large class, use easel paper and have a group work on each. Be really clear they don’t have to draw the whole picture from the book – just one needs to make something that looks kind of like grass. One kind of like a river. And mud, forest, snowstorm (use white crayon on blue paper), cave…

Draw the pages. Tape them up around the room in order and then tell them all to bring their binoculars and follow you on a bear hunt.

Bear Hunt

Start with the first “verse.” You say it, they echo.

We’re goin’ on a bear hunt, We’re going to catch a big one,
We’re not scared. What a beautiful day!
Oh no! It’s some grass… some long, wavy grass!
Can’t go over it, Can’t go under it,
Can’t go around it, Got to go through it!
Swishy swashy….

[Pretend to battle through the grass, then stop and tell them all to look through their binoculars. “Can you see the bear yet?” Continue for each of the following verses.]

It’s a river, a deep cold river… splish splosh
mud, thick oozy mud… squelch squirt
forest, big dark forest… stumble trip
snowstorm, twirling whirling… hooo, brr….
a cave, a dank gloomy cave… tip toe.

[Now, you’ve come to the bear… it could be a picture of a bear… or another adult could be there pretending to be the bear. Tell everyone to use their binoculars to look at it]
What’s that?? One shiny wet nose, two big furry ears. Two big googly eyes. It’s a bear!!

[“Run” back toward home, going through all the scenes in reverse…]

Quick, out of the cave tip toe; through the snowstorm… hoo brr… forest stumble trip… mud… squelch squirt, river splish splosh… through the grass swishy swashy. Back home, close the door, run upstairs. Into bed. I’m never going on a bear hunt again!!