Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

Summary:

This is the classic story written by Bill Martin Jr. about a bear, what he sees and how the story passes along from the bear to all sorts of different animals.

About the Author: Bill Martin Jr.

Martin extended the popular Brown Bear book to Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You See?  As a former teacher and principal Martin truly understood what children need in their early literature books.

Theme/Skill: Colors, Animals, Fiction, Patterns

Age Level: 3-6

Activities:
Make cut out pictures of the animals in the story and have student create their own sequence of animals while the story is being read to them.

Reflection:
As an emergent reading book, this is an excellent story to read to children. Its quick, the pictures aren't overwhelming and the plot is easy to understand. So much can be done with this story. Each animal could be an art project and the students as a whole could create their own version of Brown Bear Brown Bear.

Stellaluna

Summary: 
Stellaluna is a bat that is separated from her family and friends after an owl attack. She lands herself in a bird's nest and is welcomed and cared for by the Mama Bird. Stellaluna is brought up to act like a bird. Finally one day she is resting on a tree branch and is met by another bat. The new bat lets Stellaluna know that she is hanging the wrong way on the branch. Both of the bats fly away together and Stellaluna is taught the ways of being a bat, which include flying at night and eating fruit. Stellaluna then introduces her bird friends to the bat ways and remain friends. This book also includes some notes in the back of the book about bats and their characteristics.

About the Author: Jannell Cannon
Jannell Cannon currently resides in California. She has won several awards for creating summer reading programs for children as a librarian. She left her position as a librarian after Stellaluna was published. Her beginnings after college was as a graphic artist. To continue her art passion she creates pictures of unusual animals that would probably make people uncomfortable. This is a main reason why she wrote Stellaluna, to make children more aware of what fruit bats were like and how they shouldn't be afraid of them.

Theme/Skill: Fiction, Animals, Science

Grade Level: K-6

Pre-Reading Activity:
Create a K-W-L chart about bats. To continue Cannon's work, as a teacher you should use this time to talk about how not all bats are bad and bloodsucking.


Post-Reading Activity:
Revisit the K-W-L chart and fill in what they had learned. Also compare and contrast birds and bats. Let students know that truthfully, birds eat live things such as bugs and bats eat fruits.

Reflection:
I have used this book during my student teaching in a sixth grade class and the students loved it. Using picture books in class with older students allows you to focus more on plot and sequencing instead of tackling over vocabulary.