The Boy and The Bear

This month’s friendship themed activities are inspired by the beautiful picture book ‘The Boy and The Bear written by Tracey Corderoy. These activities are designed to help you and your child to learn about building friendships.

Building a boat

This activity was very easy to set up and the end results filled my children with pride! They both wanted to attempt a boat each straight away so we watched the video together and I was seriously impressed how they both could follow the instructions. I thought that F would find it particularly challenging but she could do it by herself! We paused the video occasionally so we could check what we had all done. And the girls worked well together, repeating an instruction and checking each others.

They were both so proud of their finished boats and even though their folds weren’t all perfectly crisp or were occasionally slightly misaligned this didn’t matter. They had both created their own boats. After their first boat, M was keen to try another and was trying to go through the steps from memory, talking herself through the instructions. F became my instructor and used the video to teach me how to fold the boat. Once they had completed their boats, it was time for them to write their messages on them. I am sure that this activity will be one that they will repeat!

The boy and the Bear small world

This activity we did over several days. We begun by decorating the peg dolls to represent the two main characters which we both really enjoyed. We then headed outside to collects lots of natural treasures to add to our small world.

My son wanted to build his own small world by himself but then ‘allowed’ me to be the bear and together we sent messages across the water to each other as they do in the book. We then also played out different scenarios that my son had had at preschool with friends.

This is a wonderful activity to practice those tricky social skills in a safe environment.

we are going on a bear hunt

This was a great activity to encourage us outside and watch the leaves changing colour.

We have since taken the bear frame out later on in the day and on a very cloudy day to see how the bear looked differently.

Game Night

As soon as my children discovered the dice and the game board and what they were for they were so excited to get started. We talked together about different ways they could set up their games. Each player could race from left to right, or could do more of a snakes and ladder set up. To start off with they kept checking different rules they wanted to have with me and then slowly they realised that they could do what they wanted. They were so excited! F created a rainbow on hers and the rule was that if you land on the rainbow you could slide all the way to the top of the rainbow. M created lots of different rules for her game. Land on one square and you could jump three steps forward, another meant you were stuck in mud and would miss a go. F then added more colours and more rules. I was so impressed with their creativity and the thought that they were putting into their games. Then of course it was time to play their games. Their games evolved as we played them. This activity was brilliant at developing not only creativity but also many maths skills.

Making your own bear

Using the bear frame and the playdough, we cut out the bear shape. My son then decorated his bear using various loose parts from previous boxes and his natural treasues. I also added some cinnamon sticks, cloves and star anise which added to the multi-sensory experience.

Nature Bear

In the box we have sent the inside of the bear frame. This is a lovely activity to use this part of the bear frame. I wrapped string around the bear but elastic bands would also work. It was then up to my little one to thread different natural treasures through the string to make a nature bear.

Berry splat

This was a great activity for teaching subtraction. We began by each rolling up ten little spheres of playdough (the berries) and then we took it in turns to roll the dice. The number we landed on was how many we could splat. The winner of the game was the first to splat all of their berries.

We have played this game a lot. It’s particular good for an after school activity.

Autumn Conkers

This activity is a great maths activity to try at home during Autumn. My children always collect plenty of conkers or acorns in Autumn so we always try to involve them in our play. For this game we used the dice from our October subscription box and the playdough from our September box. I drew a simple tree trunk on a piece of cardboard and then used the green playdough to create the foliage. For the first game I played with F she would throw the dice and then had to add the correct number of conkers onto the tree. This was perfect for practicing subitising (the ability to recognise a number without counting it.) Later on we played with M too and I created a second tree. This time we had a shared pot of conkers and we took it in turns to throw the dice. We would add the corresponding number of conkers to our tree until the shared pot was empty. The winner was the person who had the most conkers on their tree. This activity would also work for developing knowledge of number bonds. Starting with 10 conkers on the tree. Throw the dice to take away that number and check how many are left on the tree each time.