Story Corner Friday: Bears

This fall welcomed a crop of lovely new books featuring bears, including the next in Bonny Becker's popular "Bear and Mouse" series: A Bedtime for Bear, and an all-new title from award winning author-illustrator Olivier Dunrea (Gossie & Gertie) called Old Bear and His Cub.

We paired these gems with a few other bear classics for a reading hour that felt like the perfect bear hug on a rainy autumn day.

If you'd like to host a cozy bear story hour in your classroom or at home with little cubs, here are some fun bear-book reading suggestions.

Old Bear and His Cub 
written and illustrated by Olivier Dunrea

We're Going On A Bear Hunt 
by Michael Rosen; illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Leaves 
by David Ezra Stein

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? 
by Bill Martin Jr; illustrated by Eric Carle

Suggested Craft:

Brown Bear-Brown Bag Puppets
This is a sweet little craft that you can make with a few simple materials.  I asked my husband Chris to design this character for me--you can use this one as a model, or vary the shapes and make it your own.

Here's what you'll need:

• Pencil
• Brown, black and white construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Brown paper bag

Here's how you make them:

1. Draw an oval for the bear's head, 2 half circles for the ears, and 2 paw shapes onto the brown construction paper
2. Draw a snout shape onto the white paper
3. Draw a small black nose onto the black paper and  2 small black circles for the eyes
4. Cut out all the shapes
5. Paste them to the outside of bag to assemble your "puppet" 

*One little note: I attached the head to the solid side of the bag, not the folded, to keep the bear's head from flopping backwards!

Anika's story hour is held every Thursday morning at 10:30am at Barrington Books in Barrington, Rhode Island.