Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr.

Martin, B. (1996). Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? New York: Henry Holt & Co. Grades Toddler-PreK.

Award: IRA-CBC Children's Choices Award

Subject Area: Language Arts

Genre: Picture Book, Poetry

Summary: This book goes from page to page showing us different animals in order to gain familiarity for the children who are reading it. Animals such as the brown bear, the green frog, the red bird and many others are shown while using the rhyming poetry that helps the young reader to know what animal is coming next.

Themes/Topics: Animals, rhyming

Initiating Questions & Activity:

• Questions: Who has a favorite animal? What is your favorite animal? Can you think of one word that rhymes with the name of your favorite animal? Is this the kind of animal you can have as a pet?
• Activity: We will discuss the questions that are asked as a class and consider the different types of animals that could be in this book besides the brown bear. We will also discuss the types of animals we would like to see appear in the book.

Culminating & Extending Questions:

• Questions: What was your favorite part of the book? What was your favorite animal in the book? If you could take one of the animals home which would it be?
• Activity: We will create our own story much like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See? The difference between our story, however, will be that we will use each other in the story rather than using animals. We will sit in a circle and everyone will take turns saying someones name in the place of the animal. For example, "Jessica, Jessica, what do you see? I see Brandon looking at me." Each student will take a turn.