Preschool Story Time - BEARy Fun

How do librarians ever settle on which books to read when the theme is BEARS??  From all of Bill Martin's variations of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, to Will Hillenbrand's adorable Bear Sneezes, to Kevin Henkes' Old Bear, this librarian had a tough time with narrowing the field!  Here's what I came up with:

Anytime I can get the preschool crowd to SHOUT at me while I am reading is a good thing! Every turn of the page had the kids saying 'MORE BEARS!'  The down side of this book is, well, it's a little long for little ones.  Gauge your crowd and if you're heavy on the young ones, you might want to skip this.

How could you not?  Even if you don't do it as a song, the kids like the rhythm of the text and some will even want to follow along with you. 

This IS 'A Lovely Little Pop-up Book'!  The illustrations are just too teenie for story time.  Since I really like this I really like the illustrations, I decided to blow them up as a flannel board story!

See the similarity with this image and the bears next to the words Three Bears on the book cover?  These were made with puffy paint and marker on felt.  Here's my Flannel Friday post about this set. 

Last minute switcheroo!  My coworker showed me this book and I was thrilled to use it.  I laughed out loud when I read it the first time and I couldn't wait to share it.  I had all of the kids bring their own teddy bears and we read this one with our favorite fleecy friend. (be sure to bring extra teddy's for anyone who forgot!)

Karma Wilson's books are always a hit.  Jane Chapman's illustrations are warm and attractive, and Wilson's text has that little bit of repetition that makes kids sit up and anticipate when to say "but bear snores on!"

My craft comes courtesy of Captain Crafty's website.  Check out these nesting Goldilocks and the Three Bears!

Retelling is always a big part of my story time, so often my crafts are chosen so the child can bring them home as puppets to retell some of the  more well known tales.  I also typed up a version of this story onto my handout and had lots of versions on display for take home.


Miss Kristen ALSO did bears for a theme this week in Baby Story Time!!  It's very interesting to see how the same theme can be done with different age groups.  If you are interested in seeing this Baby Story Time, make sure to CLICK HERE.

Thanks for visiting!