Having children under the age of seven in the house usually amounts to a lot of picture book reading! Every now and then we come across a picture book that instantly becomes a favorite. One of those is the book The Bear’s Song, written and illustrated by Benjamin Chaud. The beautiful illustrations alone make this picture book a favorite, but children also love the heartfelt story of clumsy Father Bear searching for his curious son, who has followed a bee into the city in hopes of finding a bit of sweet honey. Every page is filled to the brim with detailed drawings, making it fun for children to search for baby bear and his coveted bee on each page.

Being big fans of dress up, we thought it would be fun to make a few bear masks and jump into the story ourselves by playing a little hide-and-seek. Would you like a make a mask too?

All you need to gather is:

• Bear Mask Templates (one and two)
• Brown paper (optional)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Yarn
• A hole punch or a bit of tape

1. Download mask template and print it out on to heavy paper. We chose to print ours directly on to brown paper, but if you only have white paper, you can color the mask brown when you’re done using markers or crayons.

2. Cut out all of the pieces. Helpful hint: Cut mask out and then fold in half and cut the eyes out together at the same time.

3. Fold the nose of the bear down over the front of the mask.

4. Glue the pieces in to place using the pictures as your guide. We wanted our nose to hang down past the end of the mask, so we glued the darker nose piece onto the lighter brown nose piece first, and then glued only the top half of that piece to the mask nose.

5. Tape a piece of yarn or string to the back of the mask next to the outer corner of each eye and tie around child’s head. For better security, punch holes and tie string to mask.

We had a fun afternoon making these and playing a silly game, and I hope you do too! Do your children have a favorite picture book?