Going on a Bear Hunt: painting with natural elements

The children in my classroom really love the story We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We often reenact it throughout the week when someone is reminded of the swishy-swashy of traveling through grass or the stumble-trip of hiking through the storybook forest. We talk about natural elements around the classroom and in our community. While we do not really have snow, we do have creeks, the ocean, tiny rivers, forests and tall grass so all of the elements in the story are very familiar to the children. One of the activities I had set up at our easel was painting with sticks, leaves, grass, and flowers. We decided to use these paintbrushes to create our grass and/or landscapes so the children, after discussing the colors found in the tall, tall grass and dark forests, decided on green and yellow.

There were many returns to the easel. Some children used each paintbrush on a separate part of their painting, others mixed it up while others focused on just one brush. The focus and attention they exhibited was a treat to behold and extended to the children to who prefer to roll and fold up their very wet and paint-sticky paintings. So much investigation going on!