**Update: I didn’t know, having only ever come across this as a campfire chant, but apparently it’s actually a book. You can buy it here**
It seems I am getting several hits a day from people searching for the lyrics to the children’s chant/song that shares it’s title with my blog, so I thought the only polite thing to do was to supply you with them.
I have a particularly soft spot for this song because, many moons ago, when I used to be Groupie at a children’s activity holiday centre, it was my favourite song and one I’d made my own. My advice for adding a bit of excitement and humour to it is to add some sound effects and actions for the final lines of each verse; the kids loved it. Start modest and get more and more exaggerated, don’t stick to the verses I’ve written here, use your imagination and make up your own.
Once you’ve made a note of the lyrics, please hang around and read a page or two, who knows, you might like what you see and a blog is only as good as its readers.
Each line is sung once by the leader and then repeated by the group and there’s an audio file of my singing the first verse right at the bottom:
We’re going on a bear hunt!
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re not scared!
Are you?
Not me!
Look!
A hill!
We can’t get round it
We can’t get through it
Gonna climb over it
(makes hill climbing actions) Huff, puff, huff, puff, huff (mimes reaching the top and looking around with eyes shaded and then running back down) Ooooh, what a loverly view! Weeeeeeeeee.
We’re going on a bear hunt
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re not scared!
Are you?
Not me!
Look!
A gate!
We can’t get round it
We can’t get through it
Gonna climb over it
(makes gate climbing actions) Huff, puff, huff, puff, huff (mimes reaching the top and looking around with eyes shaded and then jumping back down) Weeeeeeeeee, thud
We’re going on a bear hunt
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re not scared!
Are you?
Not me!
Look!
A tree!
We could get round it
But it looks like a nice tree
Gonna climb up it
(makes tree climbing actions) Huff, puff, huff, puff, huff (mimes reaching the top wobbling around a bit a then falling off)Whoa, whooooah, whoooooooaaaaaah… Arghhhhhhhh! thud.
(rubs backside) No more trees for me!
We’re going on a bear hunt
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re not scared!
Are you?
Not me!
Look!
A river!
We can’t get round it
We can’t get over it
Gonna swim through it
(Makes swimming actions)A splish, a splash, a splish splash splosh. Brrrrrrrr. (mimes towelling down)
We’re going on a bear hunt
We’re gonna catch a big one!
We’re not scared!
Are you?
Not me!
Look!
A cave!
We can’t get round it
We can’t get over it
Gonna go in it…
(mimes tip-toeing)shhhhhh! Watch out for bears!
(Make this as loud and as sudden as you can) ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
A BEAR!
RUN!
Out of the cave
(mime tip-toeing quickly) Shhhhh!
Through the river
(Mime swiming, then shaking like a dog)Faster:Asplishasplash asplishsplashsplosh
Up the tree
(mime climbing, then falling)HuffpuffhuffpufffWhoaOhhhhWhoa(windmilling arms) ArrrrrghThump
Over the gate
(mime climbing, then jumping)Huffpuffhuffpuffweeeeee,thud
Over the hill
(mime climbing, the looking around and running back down)Huffpuffhuffpuff,weeeeeeeeee.
Aaaaaand home!
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It turns out that this is the story my wife has settled on to read the baby as a bed time story.
Hi Greg, nice to see you visiting
It’s a good story; I used to enjoy singing it. I’m not sure it has much of a moral or is of any great educational value, after all, telling our kids to run away when they are afraid probably isn’t a great life lesson, but perhaps I am over thinking it a bit?!
This actually is educational and a good physical excersize for children. Rhyming is part of language development and the movements help gross motor development.
P.S. I’m a know it all.
Since you’re a know it all, you must realize that you’ve spelled exercise wrong.
I read this to Scarlett for the first time yesterday evening. She really enjoyed it, and quite liked the repetition – it meant she could finish some of the bits for me, which is always fun.
Thanks for the lyrics, my Joey’s are going on a Bunyip Hunt!!!
Thanks so much! I’m looking forward to doing this song in music classes I lead for preschools and other organizations. I probably only heard it once or twice during my childhood, for some reason, so I’ve shied away from it. But I think it’s finally time to go on a bear hunt! Can’t wait.
THANK YOU for posting these lyrics!! My two-year-old daughter does this in daycare and she has been begging me to go on bear hunts, but I had not found the correct version until today. When I started saying the words, my daughter exclaimed, “That’s the right bear hunt, Mommy!’