This year we are starting a program called Before Five in a Row. It is literature based and has you “row” or read the story five days in a row completing an activity for a different subject each day. I purchased this program a few years ago and am so excited to finally get started with it. I chose “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen for our first row.
We made maps and binoculars so that we would be ready for our own bear hunt.
Clara’s Koala Crate this month had a camping theme so we built a tent for camping, a campfire, and made a delicious “smores” snack to eat around the campfire before we reenacted the story throughout the house. I had also made a cave for the bear, but forgot to get a picture. We must have gone on at least 20 bear hunts this day.
We had fun reading the story while hanging out in our tent.
We did some yoga through Cosmic Kids on YouTube where she narrates the storyline and takes them through a yoga routine. They had a lot of fun with this and did it several times throughout the week. We also watched the author’s read aloud of the story on YouTube. They love this so much and still ask to watch it on occasion.
We took a hike through the woods to gather everything we’d need for a Lego bear hunt. Benny was in charge of scooping up dirt to make thick, oozy mud. We would’ve liked to hike longer, but Clara and I had gotten almost 40 mosquito bites within about 20 minutes — it was pure torture. The itchiness almost brought me to tears.
They had a blast reenacting the story with Legos. This kept them busy for a couple hours.
Later in the week, we drove up to Dobbiaco (about 2 hours up the Dolomites) and happened upon a delightful park — it had everything we needed to do a bear hunt (aside from the snowstorm of course)!
Long, wavy grass…
A deep, cold river…

Thick, oozy mud…
And a tall, dark forest…
The kids had so much fun playing with this dam feature. The top of the hill had a water pump and they could stop the water in various places. Benny could’ve worked all day on this.
Benny has quite a knack for finding caterpillars. He finds them everywhere and I’m always stunned to see how small and camouflage they can be.
Can you even spot this one???
We loved our first “row”! Can’t wait for what’s ahead!