Bear Mini-Unit

Grade Level: Kindergarten
Teacher of Lesson: Rebekah Calhoun
Approximate Time: 40 minutes

Objectives:

1. Students will identify the letter "B" in the word "bear."	Knowledge
2. Students will explain the content on certain pages of the book after having the pages read to them.	Comprehension
3. Students will recall information from the book which they can add to the web.	Knowledge
4. Students will illustrate their knowledge of bears by drawing what they would do if they were a bear.	Application

Materials:

1. Book--Bears in the Forest, by Karen Wallace
2. Dry Erase Easel and Markers
3. One sheet of paper for each child
4. Lesson Plan
5. Felt tip pens

Procedures:

1. Call students to the rug area.
2. Tell the students that we will be learning about bears all week. Ask them what letter "bear" starts with. Emphasize the "B" sound.
3. Ask the students what they know about bears. Make a web on the dry erase board with their answers. The word "Bears" will be in the center of the web and other words will branch off from it.
4. Read Bears in the Forest. Ask students questions about the content of the book, ask them to make predictions about the story, and refer to the web when the book mentions facts that the children brought up.
5. Ask students for things that can be added to the web that they learned from the book.
6. Tell the children that we will make a class book about bears. Tell them that each child will draw a picture of what they would do if they were a bear. Show them how the top of their page will say, "If I were a bear, I would . . ." Ask them nonsense questions, such as, "Are you going to draw a bear driving a car?" or "Are you going to draw a bear eating ice cream?" Tell them that they must draw what a real bear would do. Ask for suggestions of what they could draw.
7. Release children by table numbers and pass out papers.
8. Ask individual students what they would do if they were a bear and write it at the top of the page with a felt tip pen.
9. Call the children back to the rug area.
10. Show what individual children drew (if there is time, let them share) and put the book together.

Evaluation of student learning:

1. Did the students know that the word "bear" starts with the letter "B?"
2. Were the students able to explain what happens in the book after individual pages were read to them?
3. Did the students recall facts from the book which could be added to the web? In other words, did they learn new things about bears from the book?
4. Did the students draw a picture of something that a real bear would do to show that they knew bear mannerisms?

References:

Wallace, Karen. Bears in the Forest. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 1994.

Web Idea's suggestion from Cooperating Teacher

Website: www.ed.uiuc.edu/YLP94-95/Miniunits/Heyen.Bears/ (Karen Heyen's students drew a picture of a bear in a den and then she recorded their descriptions on the picture. I decided to adapt this idea and have my students draw a picture of what they would do if they were bears. I asked my students to say a sentence about their pictures and recorded it on the paper.)