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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Teacher Tuesday: kindergarten lesson for "Going On A Bear Hunt"

I love using books and stories in my music lessons, especially with the younger students! Today I'll be sharing my favorite activities to use with the book, "We're Going On a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury.

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First of all, this book is just the best. I have never met a child who doesn't like this story. You can get the book here:


The first thing I do when I use this book with kindergarten is read the story to them out loud. Before I start, I tell them to listen for "sound words". I read the story with a steady beat, and show the steady beat with my arms (swinging back and forth like I'm marching) which I say the words. I don't explicitly tell them to, but the students usually start keeping the beat along with me while they listen.

Afterwards, we talk about the "sound words" in the story- wonderful words like "swishy swashy" and "squelch squerch". Then I ask for volunteers to try making the sound with their own voices. I read the story again, but this time I ask all of the students to march on the beat during the refrain ("we're going on a bear hunt...") and make the sound with their voice when I get to the sound words. They love this! I love it too because besides being silly, it helps reinforce the concept of voice timbres, found / nature sounds, and steady beat.

Next we review the steps in the journey that they heard in the story. By now they have heard it twice, so they can usually remember the different parts of the excursion, like going through the grass and into the cave. Then I introduce our own bear hunt through the classroom! I use this activity to assess and practice their ability to follow a set of directions, their gross motor skills, and their understanding of directional vocabulary. I just use whatever I have laying around the room- this past year we had the following steps:





There's nothing fancy about it at all, but the children react as if it were a real adventure- they get so excited to take their turn! I demonstrate it once for them, emphasizing the direction words (over, through, etc), then have them go through all of the steps one at a time. Last year I had quite a few students that struggled with directions, so this was really good practice for them! Remembering 4 things in sequence like this is not as easy as it may seem for this age.

After our adventure through the classroom, we went over to the projector and copied the motions while we watched the video of Michael Rosen, the author, reciting the story. If you've never seen this video, you have to watch it- it is absolutely mesmerizing!


You can use these activities over a period or several lesson, use all or some of them in one lesson, or incorporate various parts into other lessons and revisit the story. I've done it all different ways and had great success with each. The activity where students listen for sound words and use their voice to make those sounds is a great lead-in to a deeper study on timbres in general. I recently posted some ideas for using another book about a bear, "The Bear Snores On", in this post, which is a great way to study timbres.

I'm linking up with Jennifer Bailey at Sing To Kids to share some of my favorite lessons to use with children's literature. Head on over to the link to see tons of other amazing ideas from other music teacher bloggers!

Have you ever used this book in your music classes? I would love to hear any other ideas you might have to go with this book! Leave a comment :)

19 comments :

  1. I love everything about this post! I did this activity with kindergarteners too, and it was always one of their favorites :)

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    1. Thank you! My kindergartners last year were directionally-challenged, so this was a particularly helpful lesson for them :) And it's just so much fun!

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  2. Great post! I love your ideas!

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  3. Fabulous! I've used this story but not the book. I love the video piece too.

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    1. I LOVE the video- it was my new discovery last year and I almost died of cuteness when I first saw it :)

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  4. I do this with K every year, but I actually set up a bear hunt around the school! I came up with other places we could go and sound words for them- their favorite is A Big Field of Flowers (Sniff, Achoo!). It's a ton of fun and gets us out of the classroom, which they really enjoy!

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    1. That sounds AMAZING! I may have to see if I can pull that off this year- thanks for the tip! :)

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  5. Elizabeth, I do this song as part of my yearly Kindergarten Teddy Bear Picnic but not in such a grand way! I look forward to trying this with them this year!

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    1. Yay! I'd love to hear how it goes :) What other songs/activities do you do at your picnic?

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  6. This is great! I'm excited to do this with the kids after Easter Break!

    I LOVE to use books with the kids! The love the pictures, and there are just so many activities. Here are a couple of ideas I have used -

    Jump, Frog, Jump!: Robert Kalan, Byron Barton - We make different sounds for each of the animals
    Pout, Pout Fish - I use it at the beginning of the year to teach a steady beat, then add instruments and things

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    1. I hope it goes well- I love doing this with my kindergarten classes! They beg to do it again and again the rest of the school year too, haha! I am excited to check out your book recommendations- I hadn't heard of those before! Thanks so much for sharing!!!

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  7. I love this idea and can't wait to try it with my kindergarten class as well as maybe even my first grade class. Another one of my absolute favorites is reading the book Hand Hand Finger Thumb by Dr. Suess. I read it in the rhythm of the story and the kids naturally start to tap their laps or feet to the steady beat and then we add drums and or different instruments. They LOVE this lesson. I actually found it on Pinterest if you want to see how it is structured.

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    1. Oh Hand Hand Fingers Thumb is a great one! :) I do something similar in my class as an introduction to the djembes I have in my room. The 1st graders love it! :) Hope you have fun with the "Bear Hunt" lessons! Thank you for the comment :)

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  8. I'm going to try this as soon as the book is available at our library, I've got it requested. Do you actually do all this movement on the first day of school with your kinders? I just downloaded your free September lesson outline (thanks!). I have a small classroom but this should work with these tiny people.

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    1. Hi! I do this one a few weeks into the school year- definitely not on the first day! It's a great lesson to do once the students are a bit more settled into the routine of school and they know you and your room well enough to follow along without constant individual redirecting.

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  9. I love the boomwhackers hanging on the wall. Did you use the black velcro from amazon? I looked up the code you included for amazon and it is no longer working , I guess.
    Do the students then hold the end with the velcro patch? and it hangs up fine? Thanks! Great classroom.
    I'm inspired but a little afraid of having all instruments visible. I have a few students that wander the room or use break boxes if they have a hard time in class focusing. I've had some accompaniment on the bar instruments when I had not planned for it.

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    1. My predecessor had all the instruments hidden when I first came to this classroom, and I had several teachers comment that they thought it was ill-advised to have everything so accessible when they saw what I was doing because of the population in my building. I definitely have students who will mess with instruments when they are disregulated, but it is extremely infrequent and the gasp from other students when that does happen is proof to me that they all have the level of respect for the instruments that I hope to foster. It takes time and effort to teach proper handling but I believe it is absolutely worth it.

      Here's the link for the velcro- you want industrial strength, and yes, I have students hold the side with the soft velcro patch on it. It has lasted me over 5 years so I'd say it works! https://amzn.to/2EZna50

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