Going on a Bear Hunt Story Bag

This is by far Monkey’s favourite story bag to date and probably the one we use elements of the most. Quite often if we are going out for a walk I will take out the paw prints and the glove puppet and surreptitiously race ahead to set them up in some unexpected place. I think he must know the words off by heart now, as each time we run through the story before finding the paw prints. Sometimes when he’s really bored (like trudging round the supermarket) he will pretend we are going on a bear hunt all by himself…. bless.

I like it as its a little different to the other bags because of the added sensory element which I have struggled to adapt for some of the other stories.

I have listed the contents of the bags below:

• Cloth bag with a picture from the book which I photocopied onto T-shirt transfer paper from Wilkinson’s and ironed onto the bag
• Sensory Bottles – I use VOSS small still water bottles as they are just the right size and don’t have a visible bottle neck so they look really appealing;
  • Initially I used fresh grass but replaced tis with plastic reeds
  • Compost with water to make a squelching sound
  • Water with blue food dye
  • Box branches to look similar to trees
  • Cotton wool balls for snow, although around Christmas time you could replace this with the fake snow they sell in garden centres
• Bear glove puppet
• Book
• A little model bear which we use for Going on a Bear Hunt sensory play in Monkey’s tray
• Paw prints laminated
• Bear mask, you can find a similar one here
• Stick puppets, photos copied from the book laminated and attached to wooden skewers with the pointy bit cut off
• Green crepe paper cut in ribbons which we use when we are playing inside for the swishy swashy grass. This normally entails turning the lounge into the different environments. In addition to the crepe paper we have a blue sheet for the water, a brown fake fur throw for the mud under which I put cushions to make it uneven. I use empty wrapping paper cardboard rolls as branches and an old duvet for the snow storm which inevitably becomes a game of bundles. The paw prints lead into a small pop up toy tent aka the bear cave.
• Laminated pictures of  each of the settings with matching descriptions which can be found here
• I also brought the board game second hand off of ebay and they sent me a full size calendar of the story will lovely illustrations which I also laminated and we use for a ‘what comes next’ or sequencing game

We are planning on using the book as the theme for his Third Birthday Party in the Summer as he loves it so much. I will be posting the ideas for the party here so please check back. You can also find links our other story bags below:

• Room on the Broom
• The Gruffalo
• What the Ladybird heard (coming soon)
• Owl Babies (coming soon)
• Dear Zoo (coming soon)
• The Hungry Caterpillar (coming soon)