“Going on a Bear Hunt” with Peg People

Last year, our youngest was studying this book in his Pre-K class for his speech development.  “Going on a Bear Hunt” is a great resource for children understanding prepositions (under, over, through etc.) and his teacher did all sorts of delightful activities with the book.  We wanted to give him an opportunity to further work with the text at home and so while he was out with my husband, the two older children and I set to work making him a small world where he could take our family through the story.  

Materials

Scenes

• Trays
• Felt (you could use paper too)
• Items to embellish (rocks, cotton balls etc.)
• Glue gun, glue sticks
• Permanent marker
• Fabric scissors

Peg Dolls

• Wooden peg dolls
• Paint pens (we like the Posca brand)
• Fine permanent markers for details (we used the Micron brand)
• Pom poms
• Pencil/ eraser

We always find these items useful too:

Directions

Watch the full story here, beautifully read by the author:

Scenes

• Line up your tray with a corner of your felt sheets. (This will allow you to have one edge already straight without cutting it.) Trace around your tray with your marker and cut out your felt rectangle.  We found cutting on the inside of the line made it slightly smaller than the tray bottom for the perfect fit and it also eliminated the marker line.  We then glued the felt into our tray bottom to make a base for each of the scenes.

• Here are some additional items that we added:

1. Grass:  We started with a green base and then took strips of green felt and made snips about half way down them  on both sides to form grass, gluing them on two sides of the tray to make a pathway for the characters to walk through in the middle.  We added a few green pebbles that we had that were fish tank gravel.
2. River: On top of our green base, we made a blue felt river for the characters to cross over and added a piece of drift wood as well.
3. Mud: We made the bottom of the tray brown and added more driftwood to the edges. 
4. Forest: We traced around a lid to make green felt circles and then snipped a radial line (from the circumference to the centre point) and pulled one side over the other to form a cone-line shape.  After gluing it in place, we stacked a few on top of each other and then glued it to some wooden spools to form the trees of the forest.  This was added to the brown base for the forest floor.
5. Snow Storm: We used stuffing to create the snow on top of our white felt base and added a few pieces of while gravel.  You could use pom poms, cotton balls etc.
6. Cave: We covered a tin can with felt (both the interior and exterior) to form the cave.  Watch out for sharp edges and place your tin can on the edge of your felt sheet to help you figure out how tall the make the sheet to wrap around it, drawing the line with a ruler.

Peg Dolls

• We made a peg doll for each member of our family.  Each student in your class could make themselves as well.

• Sketch out your ideas in pencil first.

• Colour in your clothes etc. with paint pens, working in layers, starting with the base first. Allow drying time in between.

• Outline any details with a thin pen.

• For the bear, we added a few small pom pom ears.

Extension 

• Can you make new scenes for your peg dolls to go through?
• Write out the prepositions and use them to now create your own story.

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Purpose

• Setting up opportunities for children to retell a narrative.
• Learning about different types of settings and creating characters to move within them.
• Learning about prepositions.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you use a tray and a smock to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors and a glue gun with care and direct, adult supervision.
• Small items such as pom poms, rocks etc. can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.
• Enlist adult help in covering the can, watching out for sharp edges.