Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Martin, B. (1967). Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? New York: Henry Holt and Company. 

ISBN:978-0-8050-9244-8

Summary:

     “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” written by Bill Martin Jr is a picture book with very big and colorful animals. The words are simple and easy to understand. Each page introduces a new animal. It goes to the next page by asking, “What to do you see”. A brown bear, a red bird, a yellow duck, a blue horse, a green frog, a purple cat, a white dog, a black sheep, a goldfish are the animals that are presented in this book. The book starts by “brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me…” This pattern continues until children and the reader join the story. It ends by “ Children, children, what do you see?” and they say all the animals they have seen through the story.   All pages are related to each other and wonder children to wait for the next page. It starts by a brown bear and ends by looking at a teacher.

A few sentences describing why you use it for three to five-year olds?

      It is one of favorite children’s books from ages three to five. The words are simple and easy to understand. They love to be involved in the story. Children can play a role while reading the story and enjoy it.

   They learn about the animals’ names, their voices and colors. They learn that each animal has a specific sound, which is different than others. Repetitive words also help children to be able to memorize the words. They remember it and can read the story by themselves after a few times. I saw in youtube how little children read the book and enjoy it because it is easy and has a repetitive pattern.

   Illustration has a significant influence to get children ‘attention. Using big, colorful and bright animals are some of the reasons that children are interested in listening to this book.

   Besides, some children get bored during long stories. This book is short story. There are a few words in each page, which is repeated until the end. They can move around while listening to the story and it makes it more fun.

   When we choose a book for children we have to make them wonder. An attractive story should make children think and learn. Each page of the book wonders children about the next animal and its color.

   Furthermore, this book is a question and answer book. It helps children to be involved in the story. They can learn many simple words such as colors or animals’ names only by listening to the story.

Illustration:

  The pictures are really big and undoubtedly colorful which get children’s attention to listen to the story. Green and yellow are used a lot and mixed with the other colors perfectly. Yellow and orange, green and red, white and red and yellow are seen on every page, which makes the story more interesting.  Happy mood help children to smile and laugh. Kids become interested in animals and want to meet new animals. Pictures provide enough details for children to read the story for themselves and enjoy. If they forget an animal, they can remember only by looking at their pictures. I was drawn to the illustration because of amazing colorful picture. I believe bright and big pictures help children enjoy more. Moreover, rhyming sound encourage children to listen to story. I really enjoy listening to this book. I look at the fantastic images and go to the next page while listening to the song on you tube. In my point of view, children will love this book so much. They images are very colorful and big and get children’s attention.

Provocation:

    There are many different ways to build background knowledge or provoke interest for the children. One way is to place all the animals’ pictures on the floor. When they enter the room, they see the animals. Then, I start talking to children about animals. I ask them about animals they have seen before. Then I hold the bear’s picture in my hand and ask “what do you know about this animal” and they can share their memories about them. I will show the bear, bird, duck, horse, frog, cat, dog, sheep, and goldfish one by one. This makes them wonder about what is going to happen.  Then, I can play music about animal’s voice in the book such as a duck or a horse.

   I can draw the animals’ pictures on the board and when they come to the room they see them. They might ask what are these animals doing on the board and I can answer, “ I am wondering too”. We can figure it out by reading the book.

   My plan is to print the animals’ pictures and put them on the floor; thus, children can see them when they enter the room.  They wonder what the story is about.

Four different ways to present the story:

·      Felt board story: We need a felt board, cut out animals, some material such as wiggling eyes or different color of felt to make each character. I am going to use my felt board, which I have made in class. I will make characters out of felt.. I can make them more real by using wiggling eye. I will need a brown bear, a red bird, a yellow duck, a blue horse, a green frog, a purple cat, a white dog, a black sheep, a gold fish. I will read the story by singing it instead of just reading it for children.  There are many places that we can get the pieces including loony stores, craft stores and Michael Arts. They have felt in many amazing colors and wiggling eyes as well.

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SStory basket:

I need all characters of the book, Popsicle sticks, cloth to cover them and a big         basket that I can put all the animals inside. I will print the pictures and stick them on to the Popsicle. I will read the story by singing it. I ask children for help. They can participate in the story. I will hold the brown bear in my hand while waving it and say  “brown bear what do you see” and then I say “ I see a.” and I will take the second animal out  of the box and children can answer by saying “ White dog” and I will continue by “ looking at me”. We can sing the story together by saying “ I see a red bird looking at me “ and the story goes on until the end.

·      Magnet story:

   Magnets sheet, glue, a box and printable animals. I will glue the animals on the magnet sheet and cut them out. I can put the magnets in a box and take it out one by one for singing the story.  I will use a tray to stick my animals on it.They all participate and get interested to see what animal comes out next.

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String story:

   I need a long string, and the laminate pictures. I make a hole in each image. I tell two children to hold the string and I start telling the story by saying “ brown bear, brown bear, what do you see and pin the bear onto the string. The story goes forwards until end. At the end we have a long string with animals hanging to it. We can tie it and put it on the floor by making a circle and sit around it to talk about each animal. We can talk about their color or names. I can buy string from many stores such as Wall mart or loony stores. Staple is place where I can take my pictures there and they can laminate images for me. Laminate illustration is really useful because children cannot tear it. 

   All these ways are fun and children can participate. We can wonder about the upcoming animals on the next page every time we move to a new page. We can also wonder about the color of the next pages’ character. I do not need to chunk the book as a result that each page has short and rhyming sounds sentences.

Extensions:

There are many different activities that we can do with children after we have read the story for them.

Art/ color recognition:

   I print out the story’s animals and put them in a basket. I ask each child to pick one animal that he or she likes the best. Then, I put different colorful felt, glue and scissors on each table. I put the small pieces so they can select them easily and glue them onto the animals. Later one, they can use their animals to make their necklaces. I give them some colorful papers such as red, yellow and green. Again, they can match the papers’ color with the animals. By using glue and scissors, they can make their necklaces big or small depending on their interests. At the end, use straps to complete the necklaces and hang them to their necks. If we want to make it more creative and do a movement activity we can tell each child to go and find an animal and stand right beside him/her. Then, they can mimic the animals’ voices. This extension activity teaches children a lot of new things. They can learn the differences between colors. We can help them to develop their fine and gross motors. They will use their fingers while using the scissors or gluing the animals. Besides, they learn about the animals’ voices and how they move. By moving around, they can learn how each animal moves around.

 See real animals:   

   We can take children to the zoo and show them the real animals. We can ask each child to be a different animal and hang the necklaces they have made before. If we see a bear we can stop and say “ yellow duck, yellow duck what do you see in front of you?” and she/he can answer by saying “ I see a brown bear in front of me”. Then, we can engage kids to mimic their voices and move around. This activity also teaches children to learn about animals’ voices. Furthermore, we can ask something like “ white dog, white dog what color is the bear?” and they all can look at the real bear and answer by singing the song. It helps children to practice about the color recognition and learn new colors as a result that real animals have different colors.

Art:

   Another fun game is to print out the animals’ pictures and tell children to color them based on their interests. Later on, we can gather them for a circle time and talk about the animals and where they live. For example, we can ask children “where does a green frog live?” and they can answer the question. We could bring a picture of frog in a lake and show it to them after they learn where the frog lives. Pictures help children to memorize new things better. Afterward, we can play a movement game. We can tell children to be an animal and play “how does each animal move?”. They can start move around and chase each other around the room. These activities teach children to learn about the voices and how each animal moves.