Hope · Activity

We're Going On a Bear Hunt

1st & 2nd Grade

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Activity: While watching the video or reading the book, students are led on a pretend bear hunt, modeling the actions that go with the narrative. The teacher explains that the message from this story is about making goals and meeting challenges along the way. The family doesn’t give up, they make their goal, and they’re safe, even though it was a scary and difficult experience. 

 

Materials Needed: The video; room enough for children to stand up and move, away from their desks ideally

 

Directions: Teacher: “Today we’re going to have fun learning about making goals and how that helps us to have hope to go after our dreams. Do you know what a goal is? First of all, it’s something that you actually can do and that you’re willing to try to make it happen. We may have a goal to fly like Superman, but unless you have special powers, you won’t be able to do that. But it is realistic to have a goal to get the education to become a pilot, and then you’d be flying a lot. Let’s talk about some of the things you want to do, that you might not be able to do yet, but that you’d like to do in the future.” 

 

Ask students to share about what they’d like to be able to do that they can’t do yet. Give prompts if needed. Suggest goals in academics, sports, music, art, science, traveling, social work, etc. Add goals that have to do with relationships and their inner world, such as solving a relationship problem in the family or at school, feeling less shy or being less of a bully, helping someone, and so on. Introduce the activity with a cautionary word about goals - obstacles often happen when we make goals, things get in the way that make it so hard to achieve that we can feel like giving up.  Explain that as we view/read this book together, we can say the words and do the actions that go with the story. Model some of the actions before, asking for students’ suggestions as well: walking through the grass, swimming through the river, stomping through the mud, tripping on branches in the forest, shivering in the snowstorm, tiptoeing in the cave. 

 

Wrap up: Discuss what happened to the family as they attempted their goal, what obstacles did they face, did they accomplish their goal, did they learn anything, was it worth it? Explain that the message in this story is about making a goal, and overcoming obstacles to achieve it. When we achieve our goals, we have hope that we can go on and do a lot more, make more goals, overcome challenges along the way, and feel more confident and hopeful to tackle greater goals in the future. This is a good introduction to more goal setting activities. Emphasize frequently how good it feels to make and achieve our goals, how that gives us hope to keep going and do more that will make us even more confident and happy. Encourage students by including goal setting activities throughout the year. Here’s a great resource for goal setting education: 42 Goal Setting Activities for Students & Kids (+ PDF) (positivepsychology.com)
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