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Prepared for Nancy Maday, Children’s Supervisor - Penrose Library
Prepared by Lesley Stimpert
Activity #1: Bear Claws
Materials: One container Pillsbury biscuits, melted margarine or butter, cinnamon sugar, and slivered almonds.
Procedure: Cook the biscuits as directed. Brush the hot biscuits with melted margarine.
Sprinkle biscuits with cinnamon sugar. Put five almonds in each biscuit to resemble bear’s claws. Eat and enjoy!
Activity #2: Bear Refrigerator Art
Materials: Clean Styrofoam tray, bear-shaped cookie cutter, paints, wiggly eyes, ribbon, markers, magnet strip with self-adhesive backing, and glue.
Procedure: Press the cookie cutter into the Styrofoam tray to make indentations. With scissors, cut-out the shape. Paint the bear in any manner you choose. After the paint has dried, add the eyes, tie a bow around the bear’s neck with the ribbon, and use markers for other details
(example: draw a red heart on the bear). Stick the magnet to the back of the bear. It’s ready to place on the refrigerator!
Activity #3: Bear Bookmarks
Materials: Tongue depressor, light brown and dark brown foam sheets, black permanent marker, and glue.
Procedure: Cut a circle shape from the light brown foam sheet. This will be the bear’s head.
Cut 3 smaller circle shapes from the dark brown foam sheet. Two of these shapes will be the bear’s ears and the third is the bear’s snout. Glue the ears and the snout to the light brown circle.
With the marker, draw eyes on the head and a nose on the snout. If you wish, write a message on the tongue depressor. Glue the bear’s head to one end of the tongue depressor. Your bookmark is ready to use!
Variation: You may use wiggly eyes instead of drawing them. You may also create the bear using pom-poms instead of using foam sheets.
Activity #4: Bear Mask
Materials: Egg carton, paint and paintbrush, clean Styrofoam tray, glue, elastic string/band
(optional).

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Activities for “Bears” Stories-to-Go
Procedure: Cut out 5 cups from the egg carton. Cut out a hole in the center of two cups. These will be the eyes. Two of the remaining cups will be ears and the last cup will be the snout. Paint the cups plus the tray one color, whatever color you want the bear to be. Let the pieces dry. Cut two holes on the tray for the eye holes, making sure your child can see through them. Glue the eyes and snout on to the tray with the wide side of the cup against the tray. Staple the ears on the tray. Staple the elastic band to the mask.
Activity #5: Bear Song
(sung to the tune of “One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians”)
One little, two little, three little brown bears,
Four little, five little, six little brown bears,
Seven little, eight little, nine little brown bears,
Ten little brown, brown bears.
You may also replace the words “brown bears” with black bears, polar bears, Pooh bears.
Activity #6: Bear Hibernating
Materials: Styrofoam cup, brown pom-poms (one medium sized and one small), index card (or other strong paper), cotton balls, and glue.
Procedure: Cut or tear a semi-circle from the cup starting at the rim. The cup is the cave. When you place the cup down on its rim, the tear is the opening to the cave. Glue the pom-poms to the center of the index card. This is the hibernating bear. The bigger pom-pom is the bear’s body and the smaller pom-pom is the head. Put glue on the rim of the cup and place on the index card so the hibernating bear is in the center of the “cave.” Glue cotton balls on the area of the card that sticks out around the cup. This becomes snow covered ground. Glue cotton balls on the cup. Now you have a bear hibernating in a snow covered cave.
Activity #7: Construction Paper Bear
Materials: Brown and white construction paper, scissors, glue, and markers.
Procedure: Cut out a large circle from the brown paper. This will be the bear’s body. Cut out a medium-sized circle for the bear’s head and four smaller-sized circles for the paws. Cut out 2 smaller circles for the ears. Help your child glue the pieces together on a sheet of paper to form a bear. You may use white paper to make a tummy and to define the paws and ears. Have your child draw the eyes, nose, and mouth on bear’s head.
Activity #8: Toilet Paper Roll Bear
Material: Toilet paper roll, markers, scissors, glue, and construction paper (dark brown, white, light brown, and yellow)

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Activities for “Bears” Stories-to-Go
Procedure: Cover the toilet paper roll with the dark brown construction paper. Use glue to secure. Cut out a bear face, ears, arms, and feet using the dark brown paper. Make eyes for the bear using the white construction paper and a dark marker. Use the lighter brown paper to make accents for inside the bear’s ears, if you wish. Glue the ears on to the head. Glue the head to the top of one end of the toilet paper roll. If you wish, you may make a small honey pot or an ovalshaped belly for the bear using light brown and yellow paper. Glue the honey pot, or belly, on to the toilet paper roll below the bear’s head. Glue the hands on to the roll, placing them so the hands touch the honey pot or bear’s belly. Glue the feet to the bottom of the toilet paper roll.
Now your child has a bear figure to play with!
References
DLTK’s Growing Together Website: http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mbear2.htm
Kutzer, A., & Dare, M. M. (Eds.). (1999). The mailbox: Bears Preschool/Kindergarten .
Greensboro, NC: The Education Center, Inc.
Lamérand, V. (2003).
Crafts from junk.
Mankato, MN: Bridgestone Books.
Step by Step Theme Pages! Website: http://stepbystepcc.com/hibernation.html
Stull, E. C., & Price, C. L. (1987). Kindergarten teacher’s month-by-month activities program.
West Nyack, NY: The Center for Applied Research in Education, Inc.