Materials:

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin
• tape recorder and cassette, or video or digital movie camera
• book-making materials, paper, markers, stapler
• clipboards and markers
• books about plants

Developing Skills:

• vocabulary
• language
• gaining meaning from print

ACTIVITY

Read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? to the group. When you read the book again, pause to let children tell you what Brown Bear saw.

Set up a recording center. In the center, individual children can "read" Brown Bear while a volunteer records their "reading." After each child has recorded a reading of the book, set up a listening center for them to hear themselves reading.

Play Brown Bear in your room. The children become Brown Bear as you ask them, "Children, children, what do you see?" Children might name tables, chairs, or toys. You can add words children may not be familiar with. Pointing to the Venetian blinds, you might say, "Children, children, what do you see? We see Venetian blinds looking at me!"

Make a class book titled Children, Children, What Do We See? Invite each child to think of something they see in the room and name it. You can write the name on a piece of paper or they can do so using invented spelling. Then, children can draw the illustrations. Staple the pages together to make a new book for the library area.

Remember: By learning the names of things in their environment, children are becoming acquainted with the idea of nouns-naming words. This understanding is necessary before children can more formally learn nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs during the primary grades.

Children will not actually be reading Brown Bear, but repeating the words they remember. This pretend reading is a necessary step in the process of learning to read.

TAKE HOME ACTIVITY

Send the class book Children, Children, What Do We See? home with children. Children can take turns checking the book out for the night. Place a note in the book asking parents to read it with their children and write their comments. When the book is returned, share parents' comments.

Curriculum Connection: SCIENCE

Everything has a name. Take a walk outside and name the plants you find. Give children clipboards so they can record their observations of plant life. As children see different plants, tell them the names of the plants and record the plants they find.