We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

All materials here: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt teaching materials

The lesson plan above gives a complete overview of the lesson, but here is the rough outline.

1. Get ready – 5 min
2. Show book – 1 min
3. Introduce and practice vocabulary – 14 min
4. Teacher reads story with actions – 5 min
5. Watch video of story – 5 min
6. Read together with actions (once or twice) – 10 min

Get ready

This is getting the kids prepared. Get them seated roughly in a square shape. Pencils, pencil boxes and all other stuff should be placed away from students. They don’t need anything through the lesson.

Show the book

Showing kids the book gives them a context for the lesson. By showing the book before doing the vocabulary the students get a sense of where we’re going. This is quite short and just involves showing the cover and asking some basic concept questions like

• What are they doing?
• Where are they going?
• What are they looking for?

Vocabulary practice

Knowing the words ahead allows us to use these words for students to chime in when reading the full story. The lesson plan contains full details. Here are the basics.

Here are the words plus issues and some concept questions.

• bear – “What color is a bear?” “Are bears nice?”
• grass – “Where do you find grass?”
• river – emphasize the water plus flow of the water, they might focus on mountains or water
• mud – “Who likes mud?” (pigs like mud)
• forest – they will focus on trees, emphasize that many trees together is what we’re looking at
• snowstorm – “Is this a snowstorm?” (point to snowman) then show the action of the storm
• cave – “Who lives here?”

The procedure is as follows.

• Choral as a class (can use presentation above) – 4 min
• Choral as smaller groups – 5 min
• Repeat individually – 5 min

Mispronunciation can be sorted out in the first two stages above.

Read with actions

The story lends itself well to actions.

Use the presentation for ease of display, but read with actions. The first time around is just the teacher reading. Try and get the students to chime in if possible, but that’s not the main focus.

Watch the video

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pKGCFxJLqbQ

Just watch it with the students. Don’t do actions as it will distract them and put their attention in two places. It’s best for the teacher to stand to one side out of view. Keep an eye on the kids.

Read with actions

Listen to story MP3 while flipping through the book presentation.

Final thoughts

I first heard this story told be a colleague in kindergarten. Although the story is really a kids story, it is fun.

Besides that, the level of the English approximately matches that of the grade four students who are the primary candidates for this class.

For younger kids it’s quite fun, but don’t expect them to say every word, if they understand, that’s good.

I have tried this class with grade six and was literally stunned that they responded well and did all the actions when we read the story together.

Remember you can find all materials here: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt teaching materials