We're Going on a Bear Hunt: Sound Activity

A great way to make any read aloud book more fun is to let kids make the sound effects.  Search for things around the house that make interesting noises, set them out, and let kids explore the the sounds they make, deciding which sounds best fit a favorite book. Or read a new book and go on a search together.

A perfect book for making sound effects is We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen about a family that goes looking for a bear.  They travel through a field of grass, a river, mud, a snowstorm, a forest, and finally end up in a cave where they actually find a bear!  Then they run out of the cave and do everything in reverse order.

I set out some objects: jello in a sealed container, an empty bottle, a pot and spoon, a water bottle with a small amount of water, and a broom.

Here's what we did (though of course kids can come up with their own):

• For the grass "swishy swashy": they ran the broom along the floor.
• For the river "splash splosh": they shook their water bottles.
• For the mud "squelch squerch": they shook the container of jello.
• For the forest "stumble trip": they banged the pot with their spoons.
• For the snowstorm "hoooo woooo!": they blew into the top of an empty bottle.
• For the cave "tiptoe tiptoe": they banged the pot softly with their spoons.

The sound effects team in action:

This is a nice book to use with this activity because kids get to do the sound effects twice - on the trip to find the bear and then again while the family is running home.

Some other We're Going on a Bear Hunt activities you might enjoy:
Bear hunt sensory tub and more from Delightful Learning
Bear hunt story board from Rockabye Butterfly
Printable pack from Homeschool Creations

Have you done sound effects with a book? Do you have suggestions for others that would work well?