The following are ideas for using
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? in the classroom.

• Submitted by Penelope Tramell

  I have an idea I would like to share. I am a kindergarten teacher at Union Elementary. The second week of school we use the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? to learn our colors. We dedicate one day for each color in the book, then one for our school colors. On that day we wear that color to school. (Mon. = Brown, Tues.=Red, Wed. = Yellow, etc.) The whole school does it so the K kids get really excited to see everyone helping them learn colors!

• Submitted by Rondee Fuchs

  We use Brown Bear and Polar Bear every year in our Head Start classroom. In our model we have our children for two years, the first as three-year-olds and the second as four-year-olds. As three’s the kids wanted to hear the stories at least once a week all year long. As four’s they are very proud to be able to read the books for themselves and to the new children in the class. Most of our kids do not speak English at home and to help them learn the vocabulary we have found stuffed animals for all the characters (blue horses and purple cats are rather difficult to find). The kids love to play out the stories with the animals, even kids who are not usually into the books that much.

• Submitted by Courtenay Garver

  We use many Eric Carle books (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar) to teach a unit on writing pattern books in second grade. Almost all of his books have a pattern or repeating lines. First, the children read the books in groups of 3 and find the pattern or repeating lines in each book. We use Eric Carle books as touchstone texts that the children can grab at anytime to help them write their own pattern book. Some children do their own version Brown Bear, Brown Bear but change the things he sees, some children write a different version like Black Cat, Black Cat and some children write completely original pattern books. It is a great way for teachers to differentiate and for children to work at their own level. During Writers’ Workshop the rest of the year they can go back to writing pattern books as they finish other projects. Their pattern/repeating line books get more sophisticated as the year goes on.

• Submitted by Marika Roth

  I take photos of all of our staff at our kindergarten center and make a book called “Teacher, Teacher, Who Do You See?” It helps kids get to know other adults in building.

• Submitted by Ashlee Nicole Neese

  My class just did a project on book. We made our own book in the shape of a teddy bear titled “Oakcliff, Oakcliff What Do You See?” We presented it to a pre-kindergarden class, and we also went to Eastside Medical Center to present it to the patients. We each had our own page and we read our own pages aloud during the visits.

• Submitted by Lynn Mitchell

  I read the story to my two year olds and then I made a matching game for us to play. I held up animals in the story and asked the children to name the color of the animal from the book and to say what sound the animal makes.

• Submitted by Shannon Sullivan

  We read Brown Bear to our special needs preschoolers in speech therapy group time. The children sequenced the animals in the order they were seen in the book, and used their own names to ask other children what animal they saw. They also placed the animals on a large picture scene according to where the animals live. For example, they could place the Bear in the tree, under the tree, or in the woods, and the cat in the barn, in the house, or next to the house. The children communicated their ideas through sign language, picture symbols, and verbal language.

• Submitted by Theresa

  I used Brown Bear with my first graders. I read the book to them twice and then prepared an activity for them. I typed out “Brown Bear, ____________ Bear What Do You See? I see a ___________ bird looking at me.” They were able to fill in all the missing words. This helped them to become better readers and spellers.

• Submitted by S. A. Ellison

  This year in our preschool class, we decided to use bears as our classroom theme. We decorated all our boards with the bear theme in mind. Our students love it! In fact we are known as the Pre-K Bears. This site gives me so many ideas I can use this year. I think I am going to change our five senses board to: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, Hear, Smell, Feel, and Taste? Thank you!

• Submitted by Tressa Wickman

  I teach children ages 1-2 years old. I made small people out of construction paper and pasted each child’s picture on a person. As a group, we say “Child’s Name, Child’s Name, who do you see? I see ____ looking at me.” Then the child picks another student from the pile. We continue in this way until all the children have been chosen. The kids really love it.

• Submitted by Linda S.

  I have taught toddlers for six years and they just love the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I keep a file of animal pictures that we look at throughout the year. One day I decided to ask the children to find a gold fish, brown bear, red bird, etc. We glued these animals on large paper. They also chose a green dinosaur and other animals that are not in the book. I wrote in the words and we covered our display with contact paper and hung it on the wall. The banner hangs at eye level and the children love to go up and touch the animals and say what they are. Some students even “read along” the entire banner. It was a lot of fun for all of us!

• Submitted by Judi Taylor

  Our Kindergarten teachers took the Brown Bear text and adapted it to make monthly take-home books. For example, in December we created “Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree.” We then took our illustrations, enlarged them, and laminated for the language center. We used this format to create take-home books for almost every month, season, or topic of study. Since the childen learn the chant so easily, even our non-readers were able to “read.”

• Submitted by Kim

  I begin each Kindergarten year with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We expand on the book throughout the seasons by making the following class books:
  
  “ Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern, What Do You See?” is made with the symbols of Halloween and ends with “I see a trick-or-treater looking at me;”
  “ Santa Claus, Santa Claus, What Do You See?” is put together with images of Christmas and ends with “I see Christmas looking at me;”
  “ Red Flower, Red Flower, What Do You See?” is written with flowers of different color and ends with “I see a rainbow garden looking at me.”

• Submitted by Robbie Morgan

  I am preparing to use Brown Bear in a Family Learning Day to help parents put together literacy boxes for their special needs child. The box will contain stick puppets of the animals from the book, colored paper for the child to make a personal book, and textured materials (red glitter, green paper scraps, yellow feathers, fabric, etc.) to be glued onto drawings of each animal. The literacy box will also contain either the sign language for each picture in the book, or a braille translation of each picture. Parents will learn to use these different tools with their child as they read Brown Bear with their child.

• Submitted by Susan Sawyer

  I work with a Head Start program that serves children in multi-age classroom settings. For an interactive group activity for my students (ages 3-5), I have created a flannel set of each animal. The children enjoy putting the animals on the flannel board, both when we read the story at group time, and as a sequencing activity during center time.

• Submitted by Amy

  Have your students write a book in the style of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Each student should choose an animal and write a book about what that animal smells. Have the students think of their favorite smells: food, flowers, etc. This activity can also be used with other senses. The students like it. Eric Carle is universal. All ages love his books.

• Submitted by Belinda

  After my preschool class showed an interest in Eric Carle’s books, we made our own papers and then read Brown Bear. I have a very talented Aide, and she drew helped children choose and draw animals! The students then used their papers to create animal collages. The children are very proud of thier books and some surprising children have more than 15 animals in thier books!

• Submitted by N. J. Stapp

  I am a substitute teacher in Grades K-12. For all my classes I read Brown Bear, Brown Bear in American Sign Languagewhen we have a moment of free time. I initiate a discussion on how not all people are alike, on the people who are challenged physically, mentally, or both. Then I teach the students some basic Sign Language. When I substitute teach in a class again, the studtents almost always ask, “Do we get to learn more sign language if we get our work done?” They seem to enjoy the book and the Sign Language. You might like to try this if you work with multi-age groups of children.

• Submitted by Nicole Charlton

  I teach severely handicapped students in an elementary school. We use Brown Bear to teach reading as well as to teach sign language. The words are easy to learn for both the staff and students. The verbal, the non-verbal, and the deaf students can “read” the same book and all the students practice their signing. They not only love the book, but it also does wonders for their self esteem when they go home and teach their parents something new.

• Submitted by Taylor

  I am 15 and was looking for ideas for my preschoolers when I ran across this web sight. The only thing I can remember about my kindergarden class was doing a play of Brown Bear, Brown Bear and taping it. That play was very fun for me and it makes me smile to look back and remember what it was like to be in kindergarten. I went to Oakridge Elementary and although I don't remember her name, I would like to thank my teacher.

• Submitted by Nanette

  I teach preschool children with mild to moderate PDD. To practice social awareness, I made a Brown Bear mask. I cut out an outline of a bear face from posterboard, then cut a circle in the middle so that the children could place their faces in it. I used a glue gun to attach faux fur to match the outline of the posterboard. As I read the book in class, I replaced the animals names with my students’ names.

• Submitted by C. Evans

  At the begining of each year, in my Pre-Kindergarten class, we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Who Do You See? Then I ask my students to rewrite the book, drawing themselves, and writing their names twice on the page. Whenever we have a guest in our class, such as other school faculty, substitutes, or specialists, we introduce ourselves by singing our version to our guest. Each child stands when we turn to his or her page.

• Submitted by M. Jones

  I use Brown Bear, Brown Bear the very first day of Kindergarten with a new class. So often children come to school thinking they will learn to read on the FIRST day. As I read the story, I turn the page immediately after “what do you see?” Very quickly, the children can “read” and everyone goes home feeling successful.

• Submitted by Deborah Leighnor

  I teach preschool, and each week I have a preschooler take home a backpack with either the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? or Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? I include a small bear and a notebook for photos and drawings in each backpack. The bag is sent home with the child at the end of the week. Upon returning to school, the child has the chance to share their weekend bear adventures with the class. The students really enjoy the special time with their bears.

• Submitted by Julie Iverson

  To get to know each other at the beginning of school, I take a photograph of each child in my class. I begin a class book with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, who do you see? On the next page I add a picture of a student and the caption “I see Aaron looking at me.” I create a page for each student in the class in this way. I even include adults such as the principal and the secretary. Each page can be pulled out and replaced as students move or are added to our classroom. It has been very helpful for new students to quickly learn one another’s names.

• Submitted by Lynn Churchill

  After reading the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear to my class, we created a book about our school called Northeast, Northeast, What Do You See? Before the school year had begun, I took pictures of all the adults in the school for our book. This was a way to introduce the children to all of the adults that they would be coming into contact with during the year. The children and their families loved this book!

• Submitted by Kirsten Haugen

  Brown Bear, Brown Bear gives my young students with disabilities many opportunities to find or match colors, animal names, and animal sounds. We have small quilted animals to go with the book, and the students love to match the animal with each page. The children use a talking word processor to rewrite the story by combining the colors and animals in any way they choose, in any order. We might get, “Purple Frog, Purple Frog...” or “White Bear, White Bear...” The kids love it!

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