Social skills 2

Horvath, D. (2009). Just Like Bossy Bear. New York, NY: Disney Hyperion Books.

ISBN# 9-78142310336-3

“Just Like Bossy Bear” by David Horvath is a book about a bear that is very disrespectful and is mean to other characters in the book. Turtle is bossy bear’s best friend. He looks up to bossy bear for guidance and knowledge therefore he watches, and imitates how bossy bear interacts with other animals and copies bossy bear’s language and attitude when he gets the chance. Once bossy bear realizes how turtle is speaking to the other animals, bossy bear doesn’t feel very good about the way he has been treating his friends, and decides to be a better role model for turtle. 

I would use this book for three to five-year olds because the meaning of the book, and the language is easy for this age group to understand, also I think this book will give children a better understanding what this world really means, and how being bossy can affect your friends and the people who look up to you as a role model in their life. 

A place I would stop and think for minute with the children is on page five where to this page it was only bossy bear being bossy, and in every page till then we see turtle looking up to bossy bear just watching intriguingly. Then on page five it says “then, one day?” this I would say to the children “oh!! I wonder what might happen?” and leave it open for someone to comment on or just move on, but to give them that thought of “I wonder what’s going to happen?” 

The illustrations in this book are very simple but yet gets’ straight to the point and is easy to follow and understand.  The bright colors helps bring children’s attention to the interesting picture as they read along, and this gives a dramatic feel to the story, which we want in order to make it feel real. Also the illustrations have bossy bear and his friend turtle on every page. Thus shows that turtle copies every movement and word said by bossy bear. This is seen very clearly in the illustrations, which help children to really get a feel through the pictures on how this is affecting his friend. 

For provocation on this book I would makeup a song that has to do with both bossy bear and bossy turtle. This way I am telling the story through a song that gives children a bit of a background to the story. 

The way I would present the book afterwards is by making a felt story with bossy bear, bossy turtle, and some furry friends. This way the children can either help me use words to describe what bossy bear, and bossy turtle using what they remember from the book or simply their own words. This will give the children the opportunity to get to say what they think is bossy to the animal I will be showing them at the time.  This way I can see what children understand the meaning of “bossy”, and what some children may need a bit more help to understanding. 

After reading the book, and moving on I would follow up with leaving the felt board out for children to go and play with. Also I would make a human game out of it for example using the children as the characters in the book. I will ask who wants to be who and maybe add some other furry creatures if need be. I would give each child/furry creature a toy, art materials, and other things in the care. Then I would make the bossy bear and the turtle move around to each station together where bossy bear would shout out what the child/ furry animal had that he wants then after they have reached every animal then the turtle would have a turn to say the same thing at each station. Afterwards bossy bear would see what bossy turtle has become, and would go around to all the stations again and say what he wanted in a nice way, and once completed then turtle would do the same thing. If children want to also be turtle or bossy bear then we keep playing till all the children have had a turn with a creature they want to be. This activity would give children even more clarification of what bossy means and what being nice means. 

Another extension we could do is a discussion of what they have seen that’s bossy towards others or what they have done that’s bossy towards others, and how we could say it in a nicer way. I would send them to the art area where they would make their own books of their own true stories or made up stories of being bossy.