oh, this was a good one.  we read our very familiar, we’re going on a bear hunt (several times!).

we brainstormed what we thought were realistic colors of real live bears.  we acted our eating behaviors of real bears (fishing for salmon, pulling berries off bushes, eating honey from a hole…).

we brought bears and babies for show and tell (then graphed the results)…bears ruled!

there were so many bears that we had to add on to the graph!

we used leftover brown paint to cover big pieces of paper, let it dry, added brown scribbles, and turned it into a bear!

we started the day with a wild run around the room with mr rob bear chasing us.

but, oh, the greatest fun {i had, anyway} was our very own bear hunt.  there was not a bit of mystery about it.  every step was explained ahead of time.  the children knew mr rob or mr matt would be holding the big paper bear we made.  they knew he’d be hiding behind the shed.  they knew i would go first.  they knew we’d chant “we’re going on a bear hunt…” over and over. they knew he would growl like a bear.  they knew he would chase us down the hill.  they knew he wouldn’t catch us or even touch us.  they knew that i would scream.  they knew that the bench at the bottom of the hill was our “house.”  they knew they could wait on the bench the whole time and watch. they knew we would pretend to lock the door.  they knew the bear would walk away.  and they knew we’d do it all over again.

but i’ll tell you, even knowing all that doesn’t take away the excitement!  and the fear!  the “safe scared” feeling!

run, children, run!  a bear is chasing us!  run!

man, i can still feel the rush.

now big bear is hung up our elevator to bid us farewell every day.  some like to think big bear just wanted a hug.