Bears! Bears! Bears! A Read Aloud

I blogged about this author once before (here). Since then I have been searching for more of Karma Wilson's books.


Bear Wants More (2003)
Bear wakes up in spring hungry as can be, so he searches for food while meeting friends on the way. This story has a cute twist and a funny ending!

Teaching Ideas:

1. There is rhyming text which lends itself to a lesson about how words can rhyme without being spelled with the same patterns.

2. Themes of friendship, helping one another, bears, springtime, sharing.

3. There are wonderful illustrations to use for making inferences. Cover up the words and discuss what could possibly be happening in those pictures. Make a class chart or have kids write their own inferences before reading the book. Then read the story and discuss if the inferences
were correct.

4. There are great descriptive verbs in this book: waddles, nibbles, scampers, tromp, shuffles,romps, gobbles, snuggles. Go on a verb hunt and then talk about how these words help you visualize the story.

Happy reading!

Friendship Books

I read online somewhere that February is the month to celebrate friendship. With that in mind here are a few books to read and use to discuss friendship.

Day one: Make a list of character traits on chart paper that describe a good friend. Read aloud The Rainbow Fish and discuss how Rainbow Fish became a good friend.
Day two: I have students trace a huge heart and write their name in the middle. We then pass them around the classroom and each student writes a positive comment on the heart about why that person is a great friend. I have kids write on both sides and we hang them around the room for all to read.
*** I have only done this in 4th grade, so you may have to modify this idea for young kids! Maybe choose a student a day and write the comments on chart paper.
Day Three: Poetry Writing. Discuss what friends do together and make a huge list. Keep in the back of your mind the ideas and words that begin with the letters for your acrostic poem. Then, have students write an acrostic poem using the word 'friends' or 'friendship.' In the past I have put these poems on paper with a Rainbow Fish for the students to decorate.
More books to read and discuss:








Happy Reading!