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It's time for another Read and Play! My blog buddies and I have been working together for the last several holidays to bring you fun activities that coordinate with some of your favorite picture books. For Valentine's Day I chose to feature an activity to go with the book The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting. The obvious choice for an activity was --you guessed it-- Valentine Bears.
[Click HERE For More Great Valentine's Day Crafts And Activities]
In this book by Eve Bunting, Mr. and Mrs. Bear settle down to hibernate for the winter. Mrs. Bear, however, sets her alarm clock for February 14, so that she and Mr. Bear can celebrate Valentine's Day together for the first time (they usually sleep right through it). She gets up in February, completes her preparations, and then wakes up Mr. Bear to celebrate together. The illustrations are done by Jan Brett, one of our absolute favorite artists.
Here's how to make your very own Valentine Bear.
Gather your materials. All you need is construction paper in brown, black, pink & red, scissors, a pencil, marker, and glue stick.
Next you'll cut one sheet of brown construction paper into a "T" shape (so that you have a short, fat T instead of a tall, skinny T).
Cut circles to make his head, ears, eyes, nose, and paws. Cut little strips for his claws. Cut a red heart to go in the middle. Depending on the age of your child, you can draw these shapes and have him or her cut, or cut them yourself and let your child do the gluing. Glue everything in place.
Write a message on the heart, if you want to, and fold his arms in so that he can give a big hug.
My girls loved making these little bears. It was an easy activity to pull together for such a cute result!
Lena added a bit of stick-on earring bling to hers, too.
But wait! We didn't stop there! One of the things I noticed about The Valentine Bears was that Mr. and Mrs. Bear set their alarm clock for February. The illustrations show an actual clock with the months of the year written on the clock face, instead of numbers.
Sort of like this beautifully crafted paper plate and brad masterpiece. You can make one, too! We used it to quickly review the months of the year.
Then, the girls wanted to act out the story. So I set up their tent to serve as a cave, read the story aloud from outside, and they put their dramatic talents to work. The text of the story really worked well for this!
Here are Mr. and Mrs. Bear, fast asleep in their cave.
To see the rest of the Valentine's Day Read and Play activities, head over to The Pleasantest Thing where Carolyn has them listed nicely for you! Or, check out the Pinterest board below.
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