Bruce the Bear Party

Bruce is one of my favorite picture book characters so I decided to host a Bruce the Bear Party in the fall. 

I took inspiration from Annamarie over at Book Cart Queens. I borrowed her craft and scavenger hunt. 

I've stopped reading books first at events like these as latecomers often miss the books altogether. 

We started off with a game that was inspired by Bruce's Big Move and I developed into something I could do in a library meeting room: Frying Pan Ball! 

Supplies needed: 

• Toy Frying Pans (I got mine at Dollar Tree)
• Play Balls 
• Laundry Baskets 

How to Play: 2 kids per laundry basket. They use the frying pan as a racket and try to get their balls in the basket. 

For the book portion of the program we read Mother Bruce and then did a couple of activities. I had a couple of extra books (Bruce's Big Move and Hey, Bruce!) as well as a movement song (If You're Grumpy and You Know It) from Library Village if the kids wanted more books or more activities. 

On the flannel board, the kids took turns looking under eggs. I call this What's In an Egg? 

Then we played Find the Goslings with an egg carton full of plastic eggs. A few of the eggs had yellow pompoms in them to represent the goslings. 

We then moved on to the craft: Mother Bruce Ears & Gosling Craft. Templates were provided by Annamarie over at Book Cart Queens. I just provided scissors, string, and tape. 

Finally It was time for the Find the Goslings Scavenger Hunt. The templates were again provided by Annamarie over at Book Cart Queens. 

After the scavenger hunt, I gave the kids a take home activity packet that consisted of the following: 

• Coloring Page from Bruce's Big Move 
• Coloring Page from Hey, Bruce!
• Hibernating Bear Craft from krokotak
• Mice Craft from krokotak

I would definitely do this again and maybe even use it as a special storytime.