Going on a Bear Hunt
by Michael Rosen, Helen Oxenbury (Illustrator)
This is an exciting story to read to children who pretend to go on a bear hunt with actions and sounds. The family first packs up, starts walking, and then runs into (fun) roadblocks such as rivers or snowstorms while trying to find a bear. So children make sounds like swishy-swashy when walking through tall grass. Finally, they find a dark cave. Readers, slow your voice down at this point for you find a bear! Then, the story goes in reverse order, and quickly, to the house. The first part of the story is read at a normal pace, slows down in the cave, and is fast all the way back through the house. This is a familiar story acted out in school, and children delight in the return trip to the house, doing everything in fast motion. They may scream when you supposedly find the bear. A stuffed animal may be used for the bear part of the story.
This is a good book to pair with:
Knuffle Bunny : A Cautionary Tale
by Mo Willems, Mo Willems (Illustrator)
Knuffle Bunny (a series with more stories) also has an animal for a character. Knuffle Bunny gets left at the laundromat, which causes an extra trip back from the apartment house. Trixie tries to tell Daddy, yells, and finally has no more resources except to “go boneless.” Children relate to going boneless! So, the two stories can be compared with a reading strategy named text-to-text connections. How are the two stories alike? How are they different?
Power Point Version, FREE, right here
SMART board version, FREE, right here
FREE Student and teacher PDF printable pages included: sequencing, story mapping work pages, rubrics, and a writing frame. Students use the writing frames to write their own “come back” stories from word banks of possible animals and places. Evaluation forms for the story frame writing projects are included.
Happy reading, Carolyn
