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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Activity Matrix

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Source: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Author: Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Developer: Small committee of staff from Education, Literacy, and the Children's Literacy Initiative at Ramsey Action Programs-Head Start, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Audience: Targeted for youngest preschool classrooms and/or English Language Learners in the preschool classroom.

 

Day Concept Art Activity Music Activity Make-Believe
Monday Brown Bear Each child mixes paint(s) to make the color brown. All help paint a life size cut out of bear. Put animal props around the room. Play Greg & Steve's Brown Bear song. Use binoculars to see animals. Pretend to be bears. Use brown face paint and bear ear headbands.
Tuesday Red Bird Feather painting with red paint. Bird shaped paper on easel - use red paint. Hap Palmer's "Sammy". Move with the music - do actions. Make a large cardboard box birdhouse. Add bird accessories. Teacher makes beak & wings. Materials to build nest.
Wednesday Gold Fish Fish crackers/glue, paper, use gold glitter & sequins Water-wave sounds playing in background - move like a fish. Sing "I'm a little fish" to the tune of "I'm a little teapot". Words: "I'm a little fish in a lake so blue, there are so many things that I can do. I can swim around with my tail and fin. The water's fine so jump right in." Set up fishing area in dramatic play or bait and tackle shop.
Thursday White Dog White paw prints on colored paper Sing "Old McDonald" & "Bingo". Encourage children to be dogs and do the following movements: big dog, tiny dog, loud dog, quiet dog. Tape white tails to everyone's bottoms. Hide white construction paper dogs around the room. Have children pretend to be dogcatchers.

 


Additional Activities for Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Art Activities

  • Make binoculars out of two toilet paper tubes. Let children decorate them or cover them with paper and help them assemble a pair of binoculars by taping them side by side and adding yarn for a strap.
  • Animal footprint stamps/paper. Letter "B" for Brown B ear.
  • Bird seed collages
  • Use a potato (cut into paw shape) to stamp paw prints. Then use fingerprints to add the "toes" of the paw.
  • Do color mixing. Use eyedroppers, water and food coloring and let the children mix colors.
  • Give each child a paper cut out of a bear and let them cover it with coffee grounds. Spread glue on paper and shake coffee grounds on it. (tactile project)
  • Give each child a fish cut out and let them decorate with sequins and glitter to make sparkly gold fish. Make display on your wall or bulletin board by covering it with blue paper, cut wave shapes on the top and add fish and seaweed shapes that the children make.

Music Activities

  • Sing the story to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle" or other tunes.
  • Sing "I'm a Little Fishy" (to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot") and do actions with the song.
    Lyrics:
    I'm a little fishy I can swim
    Here is my tail, here are my fins
    When I want to have fun with my friends
    I wiggle my tail and dive right in
  • Sing "Going on a Bear Hunt"
  • Make flannel board pieces of each animal in the story and use them as you read/sing the story. Put them out during free time and let the children tell the story using them as props.

Make-Believe Activities

  • Pretend to move around the room like the animals in the story. "Fly" around the room like a bird, "crawl" on all fours like a dog, "pound" your feet and "stomp" around like a bear, "swim: like a fish, "gallop" like a horse, "quack" like a duck.
  • Pet shows - encourage children to bring stuffed animals to school. Do animal tricks. Award ribbons to all. Play doggie, doggie, where's your bone?
  • Have a "Fish Pond" game by hanging up a sheet and having teacher/aide behind it with prizes (stickers of fish/ocean, etc). Let children fish by swinging pole over sheet.
  • "Fish" with fishing poles (made with dowl, magnet, and string) and cards. Use cards with different colored fish by spreading them out on floor, picture side down and magnet side up. Use fishing poles and "pick up" a card with a magnet. Child removes the card, sees what color fish it is and then "goes fishing" again to find the match. If they don't find the match, they throw it back and the next child "goes fishing".

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