Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Today was our first Mommy and Me Book Club of the school year.  We have 7 super cute 2 year olds and their Mommies. 

Gathering Activity:  Make Brown Bear Necklace with Mommy.

Materials Needed: Pictures of Brown Bear Characters, Yarn with ends taped to prevent fraying, foam beads, crayons

We had pictures of the book characters printed on card stock and cut out with a hole punch BEFORE class. We provided multiples of each animal in case EVERYONE wanted the same one.  The children selected a picture to color.  Then with their mommies, they strung the animal on their necklace and added colorful beads.   They may or may not want to wear these.  


We found this activity and pictures of the animals to use at Making Learning Fun.  As the mommies and children finished before the others, they read stories together in the living room and waited for circle time to start. 


Circle Time:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? 

We introduced our friends and sang “Here We Are Together.” 

I selected Brown Bear, Brown Bear as our first read aloud of the year because I knew all of the children were familiar with the book.  The repetitive, sing song nature of the story and bright pictures of recognizable animals make it a perfect book for twos and threes.  The kids  and moms all read the book aloud with me!  The children were all very attentive because they were all involved in "telling the story."

After reading the story, we let the children take turns placing animals into a clank can to help retell the story.  We called one child up at a time and gave everyone two turns.  It was a great opportunity to practice waiting, taking turns, and practice saying each other's name.

 Everyone asks, “Molly, Molly what do you see?”  She selects any animal of her choice and puts it in the can.   “I see the blue horse looking at me.”    Then the next child picks up one of the animals and we ask them, “Maggie, Maggie, what do you see?”  She picks up the purple cat.  “I see the purple cat looking at me.”  

After the Clank Jar game, we closed with an alternative version of the song “Shake My Sillies Out”  

After we shake, then we “Fly” our sillies out around the room like a bird, "crawl" our sillies out on all fours like a dog, "stomp" our sillies out around like a bear, "swim: like a fish, "gallop" like a horse, "quack" like a duck.

Art Activity:Brown Bear Collage Art

We found this great art project on the Gummy Lump blog.

Materials Needed: Brown Bear Outline from the blog link above, glue, small foam brushes, 2 googly eyes per child, brown materials for collage (We used ground coffee, brown rice, brown beans, cinnamon, nutmeg, torn paper).

1-Allow each child to "paint" their bear with glue.

2-Sprinkle the materials of their choice on the bear outline to cover as much of the bear as they wish.

3-Add the googly eyes.

Snack:  Bear Bread and Fruit Salad 

One of our moms made homemade wheat bread that she baked in a bear shaped cake pan.   Another mom made a rainbow fruit salad that included the colors from our book!

Hands-On Activity:   Rainbow Rice Exploration

Our little M&Ms had a great time pouring, measuring, and scooping rainbow rice in our rice table. We included colorful scoops, balls, alphabet letters, and plastic bears. 

If you have never dyed rice before, you can find great directions on Totally Tots.   It is VERY EASY!