Hunting for Fun with the Big Honey Hunt!

Posted by May 22, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books, Reading

When we were younger, one of the books that my sister insisted our parents read over and over again was The Big Honey Hunt by Stan and Jan Berenstain. It was her favorite book, and to this day my parents can still recite some of it from memory. When I found the book at my parents house, I couldn’t wait to share it with my daughter. With summer fast approaching, it was the perfect opportunity to have some fun with bee activities!

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The Big Honey Hunt was written and illustrated by Stan and Jan Berenstain. It is the debut of the Berenstain Bear family. The story follows Papa Bear and “Small Bear” (who later becomes Brother Bear) as they go on a mission to get more honey for the family. The father insists he doesn’t need the honey from the store. He will show Small Bear how to get honey from a bee instead. They follow a bee, trying to find his tree, but they quickly discover it isn’t that easy! The fun story and illustrations are sure to entertain kids, (and moms will definitely appreciate the end of the story!). There are a lot of fun activities that you can pair with this book.

Make your own bees!

Bee Craft – We created a fun bee craft which also helped my daughter to work on fine motor skills. Brush some glue onto a paper plate. Set out pieces of yellow and black construction paper. Have kids rip up the yellow paper (because what kid doesn’t love ripping things!), and place the pieces onto the glue. When the plate is covered, put stripes of glue over it. Have kids cut black stripes or rip up black paper into pieces. Place the black paper over the glue to give the bee his stripes. Use the remaining black and yellow paper to create a head, face and antennae for the bee.

Follow the bee!

Following the (Bee) Leader Obstacle Course – Papa Bear and Small Bear follow the bee through a lot of obstacles while trying to find his honey tree. To bring this part of the book to life, I created an obstacle course in our yard. I also created a pair of bee antennae out of a headband and some yellow pipe cleaners. We took turns being the “bee” and leading the other through the obstacles. My daughter really liked leading me around and showing off on all of the obstacles. You can easily set up obstacles using whatever you have on hand. Have kids take turns leading the group, or even creating their own obstacles!

Bee Oreos – Emma at Me & B Make Tea created these adorable bee cookies out of Oreos for Valentine’s Day! She uses ready to roll icing and and flaked almonds to create this adorable snack which kids will adore! Who doesn’t love Oreo cookies? Check out how she made them on her post.

Photo courtesy of Me & B Make Tea

Make a match!

Bee Stripe Pattern Match – This is a fun game that is easy to set up, and helps kids to practice memory skills and pattern recognition. Cut several yellow circles out of construction paper. Use a black crayon or marker to create pairs of bees with matching stripes or patterns. Turn them upside down and have kids take turns trying to make pairs.

Get kids excited about reading with these printable bee bookmarks for kids! #beebookmarks #printablebookmarks

Honey Pot Match – This is an easy game for practicing number recognition and counting skills! Using the printable patterns, cut out a set of bees and honey pots. Let kids color the bees and write numbers on the honey pots. Have kids match the correct number of bees to each pot.

The Big Honey Hunt celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in 2012, which means that generations of kids have enjoyed this story! It is a classic which launched the popular Berenstain Bear family into pop culture. It offers so many opportunities for learning activities and fun discussions during your reading time together!


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64 comments on “Hunting for Fun with the Big Honey Hunt!”

  3. I use to love the Berenstein Bears. I’m not sure I’ve ever read this story though. I love the obstacle course and the honey pot number recognition activity! Great ideas as always.

    • Thank you! I’m not sure I even realized this was their debut until years later! There isn’t a sister and the brother is just named “Small Bear”.

    • I will take a look, thanks! I didn’t realize until much later that it was a Berenstain Bears book!

    • I loved them as a kid too! We still have several of the books from when we were younger. I can’t wait to share them with my daughter!

  12. I seriously love all your ideas for books! They’re so creative – I can’t wait to try them out once my LO is older!

    • Aw, thank you so much! It means a lot to hear that! I hope you have a lot of fun with them someday!

  14. I loved the Berenstain Bears. I remember this book as a child. I think this is a great way to really get the children to enjoy and listen to the book. My son is a little young for those activities right now, but I’ll look forward to doing something like this with him in the future! Those cookies look so good!

    • I hope you do have fun with them someday! The Berenstain Bears were some of my favorite characters growing up, so I’m excited to get to share them with my daughter!

  15. I love how you incorporated activities that tied into the story with your children. I feel like that is a great opportunity for them to actually digest the storyline. I’m definitely going to download the Honey Pot Match for my 4-year-old. He can count to an extent and identify groups but he definitely needs practice.

    • I hope it is helpful! I love bringing books to life. I think it gets kids even more interested in the story!

  16. Great ideas! We love the Berenstain Bears and with summer approaching I am looking for all the help I can get with keeping my kids busy.

    • I did too! I feel that way about most cartoon characters I love. It’s so interesting to see how our favorite characters develop over time.

  18. These are some great ideas for some great summer fun with the kids. I cannot wait for it to stop raining where I live so I can use some of these ideas to entertain my nieces outside.

    • I hope they enjoy them! We had a few weeks of solid rain, but we are luckily having some nice weather finally. Hope you get some too!

  19. So many great activities! My boys love the Berenstein Bears books, so I can’t believe we’ve never read this one. It’s going on the list right away. They’d also love that obstacle course.

    • Thank you! I love the Berenstain Bears too! My daughter had a lot of fun with the obstacle course! She’s been trying to recreate it for days now.

  21. I can’t believe I haven’t heard of this oldie from S&J B!! I love some of the older ones where the bears look a little different. I’ll have to check this one out! Also, I literally just the other week bought one of the newer Berenstein Bears books that their son does…and OMG they had a third bear baby! I was like WHAT?! LOL it was like this crazy reaction that I just couldn’t believe fictional characters I grew up with now have another child. LOL

  23. I definitely remember reading the Berenstein Bears as a kid, although I don’t think I ever read this particular book. I love the activities here so I will have to check it out with my daughters!

  24. We love this book! What fun activities to go with it, too. I love the bee obstacle course…it might be fun to turn it into a “find the flower” treasure hunt, too!

    • Thank you so much! That would be a great spin on it. I will have to use that since my daughter now loves wearing the antennae all the time and leading me around the yard!

    • It’s a really cute one! I don’t think I even realized it was the Berenstain Bears until later in life!

  28. The teacher in me loves how you scaffold activities around the books. I do the same for my little one. The bee craft is so simple and I love how I have everything right now to make them.

  29. I absolutely love anything with bees and these ideas look so fun and adorable! I was never a huge fan of the Berenstain Bears books but I’ve never read this one and would love to check it out. I often use your posts to make library book lists and then we go on a hunt for them each week! 😉 Thanks!

    • I am so glad to hear that! We had a lot of fun with these activities. This isn’t a typical Berenstain Bears book, so I hope you will like it!

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