I received this book in a box of Cheerios many years ago in 2003 before I even had children. Cheerios has a program called Spoonfuls of Stories where they include a full length book in a box of Cheerios. The paperback books are small and include the English and Spanish words on each page. Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program started in 2002 and this year is celebrating their 10th anniversary! My last trip to the grocery store I bought 4 boxes of Cheerios, not only because we eat them a lot for breakfast but also because Cheerios has put books from previous years into their boxes of cereal. My girls were so excited as we rifled through all the boxes to get to books we haven't read before. I really like that the books are small and portable giving me more room for more books and that they are essentially free! The picture of the book Bear Snores On is my second copy of the book. After reading the one from the box of Cheerios so much it needed a little rest from little hands. To learn more about the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program here is a great link that shares what it is and all the books they have showcased throughout the past 10 years.
http://pages.simonandschuster.com/spoonfulsofstories/
Bear Snores On for us was a bedtime tradition for my first born from the time she was about 8 weeks old until about two years old and by then had a little sister to share in the tradition. I could capture my little ones attention with the rhymes and the way you can almost skip with your voice through the words. Since the bear is hibernating for the winter in a cave a little mouse, a hare, a badger, a gopher, a mole, a wren and a raven decide to take shelter in the cave against the harsh winter night. This is the perfect opportunity to get silly and use a squeaky mouse voice, and I always pictured the hare as having a very deep voice. The two extremes help bring a little babies attention right to your face, to your mouth to watch how words are formed. The animals all get together and take over the bears residence by having tea, popping corn, sharing honey nuts, having a party and making stew. To make the story come to life for my kiddos I take each page and make it fun. When the wind howls and growls so do I. When the mouse creep crawls I use my fingers to walk up their belly's to their necks (they are always waiting for this one and the tickle that is comes with.). "Hare burps big BURPS!" so does mom! (the fake kind that is.). Gopher and mole arrive through a tunnel in the floor so I use my fingers to come up from below and then when raven and wren fly in I use my flying fingers to go in for another tickle. (Just thinking of this makes me laugh to picture the girls all tensed up at the neck knowing the tickle is coming!) The bear finally wakes up with a sneeze after the animals season the stew with pepper. The best part for my girls is when we all make such a scene doing our fake sneeze. It is very long, drawn out, and loud! What could be more fun? The bear at first is angry and there are a lot of fun verbs to act out followed by a whimpering from a bear feeling left out of the fun. Don't worry about the bear though, mouse offers to make more tea and corn for him too! So the bear stays up with his new friends and ends up being the one who can't sleep when morning comes.
If you like this book there are a quite a lot of books about Bear and his animal friends. They all have wonderful rhymes and teach about friendship.
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| This book another favorite. The animals are all using sign language to sign for "more". |
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