Bears Storytime

I was originally planning a "Lions and Tigers and Bears" storytime, but I found so many great books about bears that I'm savings lions and tigers for another week. Here are my bear book picks:

• Where’s My Teddy? by Jez Alborough
• Bears! Bears! Bears! by Bob Barner
• A Bear and His Boy by Sean Bryan
• More Bears! by Troy Cummings
• Do Bears Buzz? by Michael Dahl
• Bear in Underwear by Todd Doodler
• Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
• About a Bear by Holly Surplice
• Where Does the Brown Bear Go? by Nicki Weiss
• Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

A Bear and His Boy is a classic (actually, most of these titles are classics). Many of the kids I work with have a copy of this at home. While it's not new and shiny, it's familiar and soothing. It worked well for me when things got a little hectic, and I needed to refocus the energy.

I didn't wind up reading Bear in Underwear. I like the story, and colleagues with older participants had good luck with it. However, many of my toddlers are at a tricky point in potty training, and I didn't want to scatter their focus by bringing up underwear. Some kids wear it, some are fascinated by it, and some could care less. So I just skipped it!

Bear Snores On wound up being my favorite story during this session. It's familiar, lyrical, and sort of predictable. The kids said "Bear snores on," with me each time, and really threw themselves into the story.

Although everyone has a tried-and-true fingerplay up their sleeves, here are a few I gathered:

Teddy Bear
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Turn around!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch the ground!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Do a clap!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch your lap!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Arms out wide!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch your side!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Hop on one!
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Your turn is done!

Fuzzy Wuzzy
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy lost his hair.
Then Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy.
Was he?

Five Little Bears
Five little bears were sitting on the ground.
Five little bears made a deep growling sound: Grrrrr!
The first one said,"Let's have a look around."
The second one said, "I feel rather funny!"
The third one said, "I think I smell honey."
The fourth one said, "Shall we climb up the tree?"
The fifth one said, "Look out! There's a bee!"
So the five little bears went back to their play,
And decided to wait till the bees flew away.





I'm excited for a lions storytime, and eventually a tiger storytime. Roar!