Author: Michael Rosen
Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury
Ages: 2+
My little boy came home with a handful of scratches yesterday. Hands full of scratches and scrapes, to be precise. He had been jostled against his more agile classmates in the post-break scramble to class. Having proved to his mates that he was a brave young man with a "Bah, no pain at all" face, he came home whining like the wee boy that he actually is. As much as I cuddled and comforted him, I also quite frankly told him it was going to burn and pain for a while before it went away and that he would have to be brave and bear it. He immediately said " Oh I know! The pain. It's like the bear hunt, Mum! - We can't go over it, we can't go under it. Oh No! We have to go through it!".
It was one of those special moments when your patient efforts bear the most beautiful fruit of understanding and acknowledgement in your little one. I was so moved, touched by his reasoning. I knew then that all the time I had spent reading to him hadn't been in vain.
So then of course, I had to blog it!
We're going on a bear hunt, by Michael Rosen, is a very catchy poem for children. It is about a family that decides to go on a bear hunt and their rather adventurous trail into the bear cave. And the rush back home when the bear comes after them. Told as a poem with nice repetition, adjectives and onomatopoeia (just did Grammar with elder son heh heh), it gets the children's enthusiasm up to infectious levels!
The family has to tackle wavy grass, oozy mud, splashy river, a forest and a snow storm before they could get into a cave and see a bear. But when they do see one, they are scared out of their wits and they go running back again through all of the same things and into their bedroom, with the bear in close pursuit. Once tucked safely in bed, they decide they would never ever go on a bear hunt again.
The bear gives up the chase and goes back home. I actually like the last page picture of a rather sad looking bear ( you can only see the rear, but it does all the talking! ;o)). It kind of gives you a feeling that the bear is rather a timid one that maybe only wanted them as friends, not dinner! And perhaps it was sad of being rejected thus and made its lonely walk back to its cave. Awwww....
And if you hear Michael Rosen reciting it, the infection quotient truly multiplies many times over. You know I really have a soft spot for egg-eyed people ( sorry if that appears to be the worst ever equivalent of Muttai kann, in Tamil!), and Michael Rosen's eyes certainly top that category. Even better, his eyes do all the talking and singing for him! You should definitely check it out here.
As always, here is an online reading of the book.
Here's an animated version.
This is a poem that me and my little boy sing almost every day while walking through the woods to school. The vagaries of British weather means that we have gone through most of what is in the poem, sometimes all on a single day! Sans the bear that is. And perhaps with an odd fox thrown in for a good measure :o)
We're Going On a Bear Hunt. You have to go through it!
Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury
Ages: 2+
My little boy came home with a handful of scratches yesterday. Hands full of scratches and scrapes, to be precise. He had been jostled against his more agile classmates in the post-break scramble to class. Having proved to his mates that he was a brave young man with a "Bah, no pain at all" face, he came home whining like the wee boy that he actually is. As much as I cuddled and comforted him, I also quite frankly told him it was going to burn and pain for a while before it went away and that he would have to be brave and bear it. He immediately said " Oh I know! The pain. It's like the bear hunt, Mum! - We can't go over it, we can't go under it. Oh No! We have to go through it!".
It was one of those special moments when your patient efforts bear the most beautiful fruit of understanding and acknowledgement in your little one. I was so moved, touched by his reasoning. I knew then that all the time I had spent reading to him hadn't been in vain.
So then of course, I had to blog it!
We're going on a bear hunt, by Michael Rosen, is a very catchy poem for children. It is about a family that decides to go on a bear hunt and their rather adventurous trail into the bear cave. And the rush back home when the bear comes after them. Told as a poem with nice repetition, adjectives and onomatopoeia (just did Grammar with elder son heh heh), it gets the children's enthusiasm up to infectious levels!
The family has to tackle wavy grass, oozy mud, splashy river, a forest and a snow storm before they could get into a cave and see a bear. But when they do see one, they are scared out of their wits and they go running back again through all of the same things and into their bedroom, with the bear in close pursuit. Once tucked safely in bed, they decide they would never ever go on a bear hunt again.
The bear gives up the chase and goes back home. I actually like the last page picture of a rather sad looking bear ( you can only see the rear, but it does all the talking! ;o)). It kind of gives you a feeling that the bear is rather a timid one that maybe only wanted them as friends, not dinner! And perhaps it was sad of being rejected thus and made its lonely walk back to its cave. Awwww....
And if you hear Michael Rosen reciting it, the infection quotient truly multiplies many times over. You know I really have a soft spot for egg-eyed people ( sorry if that appears to be the worst ever equivalent of Muttai kann, in Tamil!), and Michael Rosen's eyes certainly top that category. Even better, his eyes do all the talking and singing for him! You should definitely check it out here.
As always, here is an online reading of the book.
Here's an animated version.
This is a poem that me and my little boy sing almost every day while walking through the woods to school. The vagaries of British weather means that we have gone through most of what is in the poem, sometimes all on a single day! Sans the bear that is. And perhaps with an odd fox thrown in for a good measure :o)
We're Going On a Bear Hunt. You have to go through it!
