We're going on a bear hunt

Oh no! a bumpy lumpy hill!

This afternoon our theme was the book 'We're all going on a bear hunt' by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury.  This is always a real favourite on our woodland walks.  We changed the weather from 'It's a beautiful day' to 'It's a cold and windy day' and then added in all of the obstacles we encountered, real or imaginary.  I introduced most of the first obstacles 'Oh no, a whizzy busy road...' and then Ollie progressively added more 'Oh no, rustly leaves...'.  We also took some pictures so we can make a memory sheet tomorrow morning, and looked out for the first tentative sign of spring.  Both Ollie and Toby especially liked the yellow hazel catkins which have appeared.  Ollie was fascinated that this was the 'boy bit where the pollen comes from' and really happy when after searching hard he found the tiny red 'girl bit, where the pollen gets stuck on and makes a hazel nut'.  He thought a squirrel or a mouse might like a hazelnut.  Tonight we read Bear Hunt again, and looked at pictures in a book about forests to reinforce his new vocabulary (as well as his Castles book again).  His new vocabulary today 'catkins' and I was really impressed that he had remembered 'moss', 'oak tree', 'holly', 'ivy' and 'brambles' from our other walks.