Tigers and Bears, Oh, My! Book Reviews and Crafts

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am going to share two great books with you. The first is a bit more serious and the second is a fun picture book. I am also providing some crafts and activities to go with the books. The first book is Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Vicky White. 

This book is beautifully illustrated and raises awareness of endangered animals. It starts with some extinct animals like the dodo bird and then goes into ones that are endangered like the tiger and Asian elephant. It also talks about the reasons some of the animals are endangered whether it being hunted, lack of space, or introduction of predator to the environment. It also shares some hope for these animals by sharing that some species are making a come back with help like the American bison. In the end it talks about ways of helping the endangered animals. 

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Hazel of course wanted to find a way to help. We talked about some different ideas from having a lemonade stand to hosting a collection. I went on to the World Wildlife Fund website to see what they offered for ideas. At the times they suggested a Pennies for Panda campaign. I had also seen an idea of making a tiger jar to collect change to help endangered animals on Mother Natured. We found some white and orange jars in the summer clearance at Michaels and bought a few. Using electrical tape we made them look somewhat like tigers and panda bears.

We brought the book and jars into Hazel's principal to see if we could run the campaign there. Hazel's service project was approved to run in Pre-K through second grade. We made some more jars and now the librarian is going to read the book to the classes when they are at the library and kick-off our campaign. Hazel is so excited! I printed out tiger and panda heads for the jars and added the words so people would know what we were doing.

 























Hopefully it will be successful and we will send all the money to World Wildlife Fund. If you would like to make a donation to World Wildlife Fund, please do! And please let us know if you do. Hazel would love to hear that this review inspired more people to help save the animals!

We have one other tiger craft we made. It was a white tiger paper bag puppet. 

Our second book is Bear Hug by Katharine McEwen.  In this friendly story a bear is getting ready for the winter by doing what his parents taught him. He eventually makes a bear friend and the two of them cuddle up in his cave for the winter hibernation. When spring arrives the two have a new bear cub who they teach to do all the necessary things. It is a friendly and simple way to introduce bears to young children. The illustrations are fun and well done.

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 It is a fun book about family, love and friendship as well as bears. To go with this book we made a couple of crafts. First we made a paper bag puppet.

We used a large brown pom pom and a small black pom pom for the nose. We also made a fun foam bear. We did not have any brown foam so this is a black bear.

His nose and mouth are paint markers and ears are glitter glue. The eyes are large googly eyes. He has a small tail as well. We also have done several other bear crafts, activities, and read bear books.

1) Bear Ears Headbands 
2) Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Action Song 
3) Felt Teady Bear Activities 
4 & 5) & 11) Teddy Bear Picnic Food 
6) Felt Bear Mask 
7) Pin the Tail on the Bear 
8) Rice Bear Pictures 
9) Red Sled (great book with a bear as one of the main characters and only words are sounds) 
10) All the Little Fathers (perfect book about fathers and their children) 

I also want to share some bear crafts and activities from fellow Kid Blogger Network members.

1) From Cutting Tiny Bites: Fuzzy Brown Bear Craft
2) From I Heart Crafty Things: Paper Plate Bear Mask Craft 
3) From Red Ted Art: Simple Pajama Party Teddy Bear Invites
4) From A Mom With a Lesson Plan: My Friend Bear: Make a Paper Bag Teddy 
5) From Craftulate: Brown Crafts and Activities 
6) From Learning 4 Kids: Make a Play Dough Teddy Bear 
7) From My Bright Firefly: Bear Cave Christmas Ornament
8) From Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds: Hibernating Bears in Preschool 
9) From Mama Smiles: Fashion Bear 
10) From I Heart Crafty Things: Polar Bear Mask 
11) From Mama Smiles: Teddy Bears with Pattern  (sorry the picture did not make it in the collage, but here it is)

 
 For even more bear and tiger crafts and activities be sure to check out my Animal Crafts Pinterest Board!