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SMALL WORLD SENSORY PLAY “WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT”

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SMALL WORLD SENSORY PLAY “WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT”

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Advantages : The activity is very much open ended, giving the students the freedom to explore with the various items.

Disadvantages : Students might be lost in what is expected of the various items if they don't understand the story and no verbal or visual cue is given.

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We've been going on bear hunts for at least two years. You could say we're bear hunt experts. We've hunted for big bears and small bears. We've hunted with our friends and we've hunted by ourselves. We've hunted indoors and we've hunted outdoors.

In fact, I think we're pretty close to being honorary bear hunters.

Today's bear hunt was a different one. Today our little Playmobil friends got to have a turn. Of course we were there every step of the way to provide encouragement and practical advice, the way only a four year old can.

Read on and see how it all went down.

In the very unlikely event that you have no idea what I am talking about: We're Going on a Bear Hunt is a classic children's book by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury.

It's a captivating story about a family going on a bear hunt ... Now, sit back and relax as you are about to relive the epic adventure one more time, in a small world sensory play kind of way. Enjoy!

In setting up our small world sensory play scene, we kept it simple this time. I set up a little small world, featuring the most important parts of the story. The 5 challenges (grass, water, mud, forest, snowstorm) our family encounters on their journey are presented in little sensory bins.

The images speak for themselves, but I'll talk you through each one in case you'd like to recreate this gorgeous little small world at home yourself.

I grabbed a little basket, put it on it's side so it could serve as 'house'. I set up a little table and chair downstairs and put one of our large diy felt sleeping bags upstairs. Then I quickly made a 'wall with a door' from a cereal box and some craft paper. I figured my daughter would like to play out the important part of closing the door for the bear at the end of the story.

We decided on using some of our Playmobil people to act out the story. You may have noticed the big sister (my daughter keeps insisting she is the mommy) is in her fairy outfit today. That's because she really is a fairy in real life. If you want to have a look at the very popular Playmobil fairy set(s), you can do that here .

I have no idea where that dog came from! It was just there one day. I think the dog in story is more of a border collie. (I don't know anything about dogs! It looks like this .)

But anyway, our family is ready to set out on their bear hunt adventure.

The first stop is the long wavy grass. I put a piece of green felt on the bottom and simply added some freshly cut grass from our own back yard.

After they've made their way down the grassy hill, they get to a deep, cold river. I put a blue piece of fabric in the plastic container, added water, some little rocks and glass gems.

Then there's mud, oozy, oozy mud. I loved preparing this little sensory bin. I took some sand from our sandpit and added water, sticks and stones. My daughter thought this was the most fun ever and the people walked around in the mud for a long long time.

For the forest I filled the plastic container with dirt. I cut a few tiny branches from trees and bushes around our home. To keep then standing up I stuck them in some clay. Playdough would do the trick too. Then I also 'planted' some leaves as shrubs and sprinkled some grass and pieces of decayed leaves to make the forest floor look a bit more realistic. (Well, as much as that is possible in a little plastic container!)

After the forest comes the snowstorm. This was easy, as I simply threw in some wool (you could also use synthetic stuffing).

Then things got real. We've gotten to the cave. The cave is a book, covered with grey fabric. Inside is a cute looking stuffed teddy bear. Besides he cave is blue linen representing the sea, and lots of rocks and shells. If the book is large enough you can really create a space for those little hands to go in and feel around: rocks, something fluffy, eyes, nose, ... A BEAR!

The bear chases the family all the way back to their home. Daddy luckily manages to close the door just in time. Everyone goes upstairs to hide under the blanket. "We're never going on a bear hunt ever again!"

In the distance the bear has returned to his cave, he's going back to sleep. He doesn't like people waking him up.

And that's how simple it is. Lots of small world and sensory play fun.

If you're a regular visitor of this blog you'll know that I just love small world play. I've written a great post about small world play, how it could benefit children in their development and how you can easily create them at home.

If you're looking for some inspiration, you might want to have a look at some amazing small worlds I've created, you can find them all here.

Have fun!

Ann*
Loved this post? You can pin it here.

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"We're going on a Bear Hunt" Small World Sensory Play

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We've been going on bear hunts for at least two years. You could say we're bear hunt experts. We've hunted for big bears and small bears. We've hunted with our friends and we've hunted by ourselves. We've hunted indoors and we've hunted outdoors. In fact, I think we're pretty close to being honorary bear hunters.

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Advantages :  Students would be able to recognize the various sequence  of the activities through the sensory bottles.

Disadvantages : Students would not be able to feel the various items if they are placed in the bottles.

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Advantages : Students will be able to explore the various sensory items and there are visual cues given for the sequencing of the various obstacles. Teacher can extend the lesson by getting students to label the various obstacle by using a chalk to write it out.
Disadvantages : Students might be confused with the amount of items presented all at once.

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Advantages: A perfect activity to teach quantity with the various items placed in the bottle, for example, more and less.
Disadvantages : Activity might be more academic based rather then play

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How's the weather in your area? It's really feeling like fall here which makes me want to break out all the fall-scented candles, go hiking with the kids, and find an orchard nearby. Time to make applesauce!

Stay tuned for some fun pumpkin and fall themed calendar printables too! I'll be sharing some in the next few days with you all, so warm up your laminators and get your scissors ready to do some cutting!

Here are a few ideas to Pin and file to use with your kids in the next bit.

While packing peanuts are not my favorite thing to find in my house, this sculpture idea would be a great way to use them! Visit To the Moon and Back to read more of this fun activity.

The book We're Going on a Bear Hunt was one of our FAVORITES, and this idea of using discovery bottles = brilliant. (Well, in my book - for what that's worth). Visit Nestpirations for how she pulled this fun idea together.

Want to work on graphing and measuring with your young kiddos? Moms Have Questions Too shares 21 different graphing and measuring activities that you can try out.

It's apple season and the ideas are rolling in for fun fall ideas. Here's a simple apple counting and math activity using red water beads from 3 Dinosaurs.

For those of you who didn't have a chance to join in the Discipleship and Discipline class, it is now available on-demand (which means you can watch the sessions as they were recorded at any time - woot!). Sally Clarkson and Sarah Mae are SUCH encouraging women and spent four days answering parenting questions and offering insight for moms who desperately need it. You can find out more here.

Have a great week. Can't wait to see what you all have to share and link up this week!

Follow the PreK and Kindergarten Community Pinterest Board

Each week I am pinning many of your links onto the Preschool and Kindergarten Community Pinterest Board. I'm a visual person, so having pictures to help me remember posts is super helpful. Be sure to jump over and follow the board - and find some fun ideas at the same time!

Link Up with the Preschool and Kindergarten Community!

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool and Kindergarten Community. By linking up, you are granting permission for me to share your wonderful ideas and pictures with others in periodic show-and-tell posts.

Be specific in your 'link title'. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

Were You Featured in the Preschool & Kindergarten Community?

If you were featured in one of the weekly posts, feel free to grab the button coding below and display it on your site!

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Packing Peanut Sculptures and Discovery Bottles - Preschool and Kindergarten Community

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How's the weather in your area? It's really feeling like fall here which makes me want to break out all the fall-scented candles, go hiking with the kids, and find an orchard nearby. Time to make applesauce! Stay tuned for some fun pumpkin and fall themed calendar printables too!

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Advantages : Students get to explore the sequence of the activity through exploring the various obstacles with the sensory items.
Disadvantages : Disengaging students from the activity might be challenging for the teacher.

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We're going on a Bear Hunt, it's going to be a messy one...

So I mentioned before, how I'm always finding inspiration in our favourite bedtime stories. I love the idea of deepening a child's understanding of a story, using their playtime experiences to explore the concepts in what at first looks like a simple text. Ultimately we know children (and adults) learn better when their senses are engaged, which is why we point out pictures and put on funny voices when we're reading to them.

I decided to turn one of Vinnie's favourite books 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen into a sensory play session. The book is full of descriptive language...

...'long wavy grass' - I'm pretty sure my friends think I'm nuts when I ask if I can come round to borrow their paper shredder, then fill up a carrier bag with the shreddings!

...'a deep cold river' - I coloured some water blue, but as the container I used is brown (a recycled vegetable tray) I couldn't get a decent photo at all!

...'thick oozy mud' - I thought about this one for a long time, my first thought was playdough, but I used that in the next tray and I wanted to give Vin a completely new texture to explore. I played around with flour and paste and coffee grinds, but in the end I mixed up a batch of chocolate Angel Delight (similar to chocolate pudding in the US)

'a big dark forest' of twigs and leaves sunk into some brown playdough

'a narrow gloomy cave' - I had wild ideas of making a cave that Vin would actually have to reach into, but I couldn't pull it off as well as I'd envisaged. Instead we had a tray full of rocks and...

...'one shiny wet nose, two big furry ears, two big goggly eyes... it's a bear!'

here's his best 'uh-uh' face!

As I was setting up I kind of expected the contents of the trays probably wouldn't all stay where they were supposed to. What I was not expecting was the dumping of all of the trays into the water...

Interestingly the 'snow' absorbed all of the water and turned blue. Vin then tried looking for the water under the snow, which led to some science-y type conversations. We also got to talk about how the paper disintegrated and the sticks started getting mushy, but nothing happened to the rocks.

So we got to re-tell a bit of the story, before curiosity took over, but I love how this playtime went a completely different route and we got to talk about concepts I'd never have mentioned otherwise!

*ps since I wrote the original Fake Snow post a couple of people have mentioned the stuffing from nappies/diapers might be toxic. I did some research and couldn't find any conclusive argument either way. I spoke with a friend who is a biomedical research scientist, who said that old disposable nappies would have had toxic chemicals in, but that the eco-friendly compostible nappies I use would definitely not be toxic, unless the filling was consumed in large doses (he also mentioned that both oranges or bread can be toxic if consumed in large doses!) If you're still not keen you could crush up some icecubes in a blender or defrost your freezer like we did here.

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We're Going on a Bear Hunt Messy Play Style...

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We're going on a Bear Hunt, it's going to be a messy one... So I mentioned before, how I'm always finding inspiration in our favourite bedtime stories. I love the idea of deepening a child's understanding of a story, using their playtime experiences to explore the concepts in what at first looks like a simple text.

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Advantages : Students will be able to sequence the various obstacles using the sensory bag since its provides visual cues of the obstacles.
Disadvantages : Once again students would not be able to explore the various sensory items by touching it.

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For the past several weeks, Little Sis has been requesting "Going on a Bear Hunt" as one of her bedtime stories.

Since it's been pretty chilly outside, I put together some non-messy sensory bags to bring the story to life.
Sensory play doesn't always have to be messy!

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Going on a Bear Hunt Sensory Activity

To prep for the activity, I gathered:

ziplock baggies

tape (I would highly recommend duct tape!)

different materials to go along with the book

For the long wavy grass, I picked some of the ornamental grass from our garden.

For the deep, cold river we colored some water blue.

For mud, we dug up dirt from the garden and added water to it.

For the snowstorm, we added some powdered sugar.

And for the forest, we picked up some broken twigs from the yard (and when I say "we," I mean I sent my son to gather them- Ha!)

Initially, I hung up the bags on the window, so baby brother could explore, too! He loved touching the bags.

Just make sure you double bag the mud and water ! Don't ask how I know ; )

I printed off an image of a bear from online and stuck him in a paper bag cave.

Are you ready to go on a bear hunt?!

More Before Five in a Row go-along activities for other books:

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no-mess going on a bear hunt sensory bags

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No-Mess Going on a Bear Hunt Sensory Bags

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For the past several weeks, Little Sis has been requesting "Going on a Bear Hunt " as one of her bedtime stories. Since it's been pretty chilly outside, I put together some non-messy sensory bags to bring the story to life. Sensory play doesn't always have to be messy!