Welcome to our third day of The Picture Book Party: Five Books in Five Days, running in conjunction with PanMacmillan South Africa and Walker Books UK…
Day 3: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
While some books bring out baking in us and others inspire craftiness, there are books that bring out pure nostalgia… Welcome to We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, this is one of our all time favourite picture books… like ever, in the world, favourite. This book is the “comfort food” picture book for our family and very much describes many days in our lives: We get up with enthusiasm, launch off on an adventure… up the mountain, across the beach… in and out of “stormy weather…” and then a dash home to bed. We may not always be hunting bears but the adventure is pretty much the same and making memories is the game!!!
Now, I firmly believe that every family should have a handful of picture books that they know off by heart, just in case you find yourself in a spot without a book when you desperately need one. Many a long boring queue has been endured by reading an imaginary book and then there is bedtime, when you are actually just too tired to read a real live book… I have little trick that we turn out the lights and I read in the dark. My kids fall for this… I know yours are much cleverer than mine… but mine really like when they are tired at the end of the day to get a story no matter what.
Anyway, we were thrilled to discover this book was part of the Picture Book Party… because it happens to be a twenty fifth anniversary edition… with a very sweet read of the story by Sophie Aldred. If you are looking for lots of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt fun and activities then head straight over to the official website, where you will find activities and behind the scenes and an epic read by Michael Rosen… and believe it or not one of our earliest blog posts was about this book.
Meanwhile, Holding on to Our Memories
So I mentioned how this book made us feel all nostalgic, and we are definitely in the business of making memories… but I am not always the best at keeping them. I cannot think when last I printed out actual photographs. So we chose some photographs from one of our recent hikes in The Nature Reserve… we weren’t actually on a bear hunt, but we were looking for wildlife.
We printed some pictures and a together with an old cereal box, we created our own book. And used a colouring page from here, for the cover…
Gluing, sticking, chatting and a lot of reminiscing later, and we had…
Now we have a book to to remind us of our recent hikes… lying on the coffee table in the lounge, getting just as read and fingered and enjoyed as the book that gave us the idea. And that is Book #3, in our Picture Book Party… Join us for the rest of the week. We will be blogging about books, books and more books… we would love you to join us.
We are planning to end the week with a post of recommendations by our readers, so we really want to hear from you. Today’s book was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, that we all know off by heart. Is there a book that you love and have read so many times that you know it off by heart? Leave a comment and let us know.
We were given a copy of this book for review by PanMacmillan South Africa, we were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed were as usual, entirely our own. If you want to know more about the Picture Book Party, click the image, it will take you there!!!
Wow! I love your photos and the book you made!!
Steph
That is SO awesome!!! I love that y’all made your own version for your family. It’s a brilliant idea!
We love this book as well. We have a book called “hello goodbye” that Kade knows off by heart which he loves!
xxx
Oh we do love that book! I think our favorite is The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman. My kids are not picky eaters but the pictures just look so much like our life it’s amazing 🙂
This was one of our first favorites when we started homeschooling 16 yrs ago! Thank you for a trip down memory lane.
i LOVE LOVE LOVE your book!!!!
I will have to ask D and the kids – I know they all know Jack and the Beanstalk off by heart (I need to video them – it is SUPER adorable).
Speaking of super adorable, how GORGEOUS is hood 8 in that pic with his bear?!
XXXX
Well Hello Steph, How lovely to have you stop by… It is so lovely to have you blogging away, I so enjoy your writing!!!! Hope you all have a great weekend!!!
Hay Zayaan, It was so fun and so easy… and the most read book of the week!!! Definitely going to find more books we can create together!!! Hope you have a fun weekend!!!
Oh Sam, That one is new to us… will have to check it out!!! Thanks for the tip and hope you all have a fun weekend!!!
Hay Caitlyn… I am loving all the new suggestions!!! We don’t this one either!!! Going to have to go on a book hunt!!! Have a fun weekend!!!
Hay Wendy Young, Happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by… I tell you homeschooling time flies past so very fast… holding my breathes as some people are lurching towards the finish line!!! Hope you guys have fabulous weekend!!!
Oh Marcia, I knew you would love our book – printing pics out is your thing. I must ask how you print your photographs? And here’s a true confession about having eight kids… When I told him to go and get his bear, he went and got his brother’s bear. Turns out he never got one, like how did I miss that, and his older siblings swap around and lend him when he needs one. “Hall of shame…” no one said anything and it slipped through the cracks. Will have to remedy this soonest!!!
I also love this book. One of the few I went and bought for my 2 year old. She also knows most of the words now and for some reason thinks the dog walking through the mud is so funny:). What I usually do is get a lot of books from the library and if we find one we really love then I try to buy it. We also love Lynley Dodd (Slinky Malinky etc) and the Gruffalo books.