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The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

We’re going on a Goopy Bear Hunt…..Fine Motor Sensory Fun!

by 3 Comments

My girls and the family day care children are absolutely obsessed with the story and song “We’re going on a bear hunt” lately.

They are also showing a lot of interest in the concepts of big and small, counting to 10 and grouping colours.

So when my new barrel of coloured teddy bear counters arrived in the mail I knew they would be the perfect resource to practise all of the above!

I wanted to see where the children’s interests led them without too much provocation so all I got out was some teddies (making sure to include numerous sizes and all 4 primary colours), added some plastic containers and tools such as big and small spoons and a few small tongs and of course some goop.

We're going on a goopy bear hunt sensory play feature

This goop was a little runnier than I usually make it so we turned it into a mud pit the bears were stuck in. There was a layer of watery goop on the top and a slimy sludge underneath that could hold the teddies upright so they looked stuck.
 
Don’t know how to make goop? Try using my easy recipe which can be found here.
 
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
 
The children began putting in the colour teddies they wanted…interesting to see that most of them actually picked a colour and stuck with it…after a little spirited bargaining with each other of course.
 
They enjoyed moving them around and making stories about the big and ‘baby’ bears and then began squelching them in the ‘mud’ just like the book we read too much often.
 
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
 
They then started to pick up spoons and try to catch and scoop the bears from the goop and collect them in their containers. A real workout for those fine motor and problem solving skills.
 
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
 
After they collected their chosen bear colour, they had just as much fun tipping or spooning them back into the mud!
 
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem

They all played with the bears in different ways at different stages. Ruby preferred to stick with her chosen colour of red while Tara enjoyed mixing them up to create more of a challenge.

Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem

 

Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
The tongs were a popular tool as well and it was quite tricky to pluck those stuck bears out…it took a lot of concentration and perseverance!
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
The large tongs were even harder for little hands to master but they kept trying.
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem

I’m still working on Ruby’s grip. This is how she is still holding a spoon (photo below) until prompted to turn her hand over. By gripping this way she doesn’t have as much control over the spoon, the things she needs to pick up and her coordination. We are slowly getting there with the use of lots of fine motor activities such as this one!

Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
 
Goop is a fun sensory experience just on its own but the addition of the coloured bears, spoons and tongs increased the longevity and learning outcomes of the medium.
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
It is simple to set up and the bears are washed easily at the end of play in some soapy water. Pink tutus outside while you get messy are of course an optional extra 😉
 
Going on a Goopy Bear Hunt..A fun sensory activity incorporating fine motor skills, cokour recognition, classification and counting. Mummy Musings and Mayhem
 

Some of the ways I extended the learning and play possibilities with this activity..

  • I asked the children to follow directions and find the bear that matched my description e.g “Find me the small yellow bear please”
  • I asked if they could pick up a certain number of bears and count as they put them into their bowls.
  • I asked them to find “All the yellow bears”
  • I asked them if they could make their bears swim through the mud.
  • I asked them to pick up only with the small spoons (or large)
  • I asked them to pick up and put back using only the tongs.
  • I asked them to line up a simple pattern of bears (blue, yellow, red, blue, yellow, red)
  • I asked them to help me wash the bears, tongs and spoons when we had finished play.

Do you have coloured bear counters? What is your child’s favourite way of playing with them?

Find more ideas like this for early learning and network with other early childhood educators from around the world in The Empowered Ed Community

If you enjoyed this activity why not PIN IT on Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest HERE). 
 
We're going a goopy bear hunt pinterest 1
 
 

More ideas and support below!

Comments

  1. karen says

    what a fun idea, we love that story too although ill admit it’s been ‘missing’ for a while but I might just get it out again soon

    Reply

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What people are saying …

A big shout out to you Jodie!

I purchased all your Educator Resource Packs and they are fantastic! I can already see they are going to be a massive help in all areas. You share so many fantastic resources and ideas. I can hardly wait to get more oranges!
Thanks for all the hard work that obviously went into putting these together.

Renata Plesa Stipanovic

5.0
2018-10-24T11:28:25+11:00

Renata Plesa Stipanovic

I purchased all your Educator Resource Packs and they are fantastic! I can already see they are going to be a massive help in all areas. You share so many fantastic resources and ideas. I can hardly wait to get more oranges! Thanks for all the hard work that obviously went into putting these together.

Thank you!

I've been teaching for over 20 years, with 14 of that time being a 3's teacher. It's hard to find workshops that go beyond basics but you offer basics and MORE and are exetremely helpful and supportive.

Chris Binder

5.0
2018-10-24T11:33:54+11:00

Chris Binder

I've been teaching for over 20 years, with 14 of that time being a 3's teacher. It's hard to find workshops that go beyond basics but you offer basics and MORE and are exetremely helpful and supportive.
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Thanks Jodie for doing what you do.

I love that you are genuine and have a working knowledge of all that you offer to educators. Only educators know what other educators go through and need in terms of support and resources. I appreciate you and the work you do.

Peta Wendt

5.0
2018-10-24T11:51:24+11:00

Peta Wendt

I love that you are genuine and have a working knowledge of all that you offer to educators. Only educators know what other educators go through and need in terms of support and resources. I appreciate you and the work you do.

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Jodie.

I was the winner of the My Play Prompt Planner and I LOVE it! It has given me the confidence to start the new year with a bang, with no stress and to feel confident I am doing the best I can with my programming. Thank you!

Cora Mills

5.0
2018-10-24T11:54:57+11:00

Cora Mills

I was the winner of the My Play Prompt Planner and I LOVE it! It has given me the confidence to start the new year with a bang, with no stress and to feel confident I am doing the best I can with my programming. Thank you!
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What a great resource.

I got the Organisation Toolkit today, I'm starting my own family day care and no way in hell am I going to be unorganised! Thanks sooooo much for such a great resource.

Katrina Krogh

5.0
2018-10-25T12:24:25+11:00

Katrina Krogh

I got the Organisation Toolkit today, I'm starting my own family day care and no way in hell am I going to be unorganised! Thanks sooooo much for such a great resource.

Well Done!

It's blessing to find such a great range of resources and information that will simplify my job. It's the first time in 21 year I've found this kind of resources that I can reach just pressing a button!

Xiomara Moran

5.0
2018-10-25T12:27:14+11:00

Xiomara Moran

It's blessing to find such a great range of resources and information that will simplify my job. It's the first time in 21 year I've found this kind of resources that I can reach just pressing a button!
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