Teacher Background Information: The worksheets needed are provided in this compiled unit. Each lesson contains the information necessary to teach it.

Brief Description: This unit is designed to get the children enthused about a subject (bears), and thus get them more interested in actively working in each content area included. As well as integrating many subject areas together, this unit looks into comparing real and imaginary bears.

Major Concept: Bears

Objectives*:

1. The students will actively participate by giving an up to 5 minute presentation, receiving a 20/30 or better on the rubric assessment of the presentation.
2. The students will complete a written exam (based on 100%) within 15 minutes and receive a 90% or better.
   * Conditions/time periods should be adjusted depending upon grade level.

List of Materials: The worksheets and lesson plans are included (tabbed in back). Each individual activity will list the materials needed for it. For example, some activities include children's books. This book will be listed in the Student references page with a brief description of it.

Forms of Evaluation:

ORAL PRESENTATION:

The students may pick their favorite activity of the unit (some may need to be adjusted to be sure that they contain five facts), and present it to the class in 5 minutes or less. They will be assessed by the rubric on the next page. 30 points possible.

WRITTEN EXAM:

This exam will be based on 100 point scale. An example exam is also on the next page.

Name of Student:_____________

Beginning time:_______________

Ending time: _________________

Highest Lowest

Extra credit: Name one interesting fact that you learned about bears.

Adair, Stan; et. al. Primarily Bears. AIMS Education Foundation. Fresno, CA 1992.

Drew, Rosa. Bears. Creative Teaching Press, Inc. Cypress, CA. 1990

Hofer, Kathy. Bears. Teacher Created Materials, Inc. Huntington Beach, CA. 1990

Raines, Shirley C. and Canady, Robert J. Story Stretchers. Gryphon House. Mt. Rainier, MD. 1989.

Warren, Jean. Theme-A-Saurus. Warren Publishing House, Inc. Everett, WA. 1989.

Warren, Jean. Toddler Theme-A-Saurus. Warren Publishing House, Inc. Everett, WA. 1991

The Bear's Toothache. By David McPhail.

A little boy dreams a huge bear is moaning in pain outside his bedroom window. After inviting him n, the boy examines his teeth with a flashlight and tries several maneuvers to pull the bear's aching tooth. Finally, he finds the solution. He ties one end of his cowboy rope around the tooth, and asks the bear to jump from the window ledge. The tooth pops out and the bear is relieved. As a reward for helping, the bear gives the boy his giant tooth to place under his pillow.

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

The text is a series of animals asking the same question, "What do you see?" The brown bear answers the question. The other characters are a redbird, a yellow duck, a blue horse, a green frog, a purple cat, a white dog, a black sheep, a goldfish, a teacher, and children.

Corduroy. By Don Freeman.

Corduroy is an adventuresome toy bear who wanders around in a department store at night. One night while he is looking for a button to replace the one missing from his overalls, the night watchman discovers him and takes him back to the toy display. When he awakens the next morning, a little girl is there to buy him with the pennies that she has saved. She takes him home and immediately mends his overalls by putting on a new button for him.

The Teddy Bears' Picnic. By Jimmy Kennedy.

All the teddy bears have their picnic in the woods on a special day. And if boys and girls want to know what happens there, the author tells them, they'd "better go in disguise." At the beginning of the book, we see a little boy dressing in a teddy bear's costume followed by scenes of teddy bears of all sizes and descriptions marching tot he picnic in a line that covers the hillside. The teddy bears have lovely things to eat, they play hide and seek and basketball, have sack races, and many other games. The last scene is a surprise, when we see that not only was the little boy in teddy bear disguise, but so were his mother, father, and little sister.

Subject area: Social Studies

Objectives:

1. The students will learn one different habitat of a bear of their choice.
2. Students will create a diorama in their shoebox depicting the habitat of the bear they have chosen.

Materials Needed:

• Worksheet on habitat
• One shoebox per student
• Glue
• Paper
• Pencils
• Crayons
• Nature stuff (twigs, leaves, grass, sand, snow, etc.)

Directions: The students will each choose a bear. They will research the habitat of the bear they have chosen. Each student then takes a shoebox and designs a 3-D habitat in the box. The teacher may chose to take the class outside for a short period to gather nature materials for their habitats. The children should label the type of bear that would live in this habitat. The children then share their "bear habitats" with the rest of the class and then display them in the hall.

Subject area: Social Studies

Objectives: The student will create a fact cube describing 5 facts about one bear's habitat.

Materials:

• World map
• Bear information resources
• Paper for cube

Directions: Each student will research the bear they have chosen. They will find five facts about the geography of the place where this species of bear lives. They will make a fact cube showing one fact on each side. They will then show their cube to the class and point out the area where their bear lives on a world map.

Subject area: Language Arts

Objectives:

1. The students will imagine what life is like as a bear.
2. The students will keep a journal during the length of the unit describing their lives from a bear's point of view.

Materials Needed:

• Each student needs a journal
• Topic for each day of unit "Today I was . . . "
• Honey Jar or something to hold topics

Directions: The students will draw a topic each day. Each topic deals with a part of a bear's life. For example, one topic might be "Today I was chased by a hunter. I ran and ran until . . . "The student must finish the story in their bear journals. Each day the teacher will choose a few journal entries to be read aloud. The students keep their journals until the unit is over.

Subject Area: Language Arts

Objectives:

1) The students will find five facts about a bear of their choice.

2) The students will write a "Bear Book" describing their bear and then present it to the class.

Materials Needed:

• Bear sheets
• Information on the different types of bears

Directions: Each child will chose on of the seven bear to write about. They will then research their bear to find five facts about their bear. The will tell

• who their bear is
• where their bear lives
• what their bear looks like
• the type of house their bear lives in
• PLUS one extra interesting fact about their bear

They will use the bear sheets (included) to write their books. After their book is completed, they will then present the books to the class and display them in the classroom.

Subject Area: Mathematics

Objectives:

1) The students will be learning patterning/sequencing skills.

Materials Needed:

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr.
• stacking blocks
• yarn or shoe strings
• beads
• construction paper in 1 inch wide by 2 & 3 inch long strips in the colors:
  • brown
  • red
  • yellow
  • blue
  • green
  • purple
  • white
  • black
  • gold

Directions:

1. Read the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr.
2. Recall with the children all of the animals in this story. When a child says the name of an animal, place that colored square of construction paper on the table. For example, when a child says "frog", place the piece of green paper on the table.
3. Ask if the colors are in the right order. Often the children will recall the bear first, so they do have the beginning color.
4. Have the children sequence the pieces of paper. Someone will decide that they need to check the book, so make sure that it is available.
5. When the colors are in order, give the children beads or blocks of those colors and let them choose which they will use to make a Brown Bear sting of beads or a Brown Bear stack of blocks.

Subject Area: Mathematics

Objectives: This activity works on the math skills of estimating, counting, comparing, computation, graphing, and problem solving. The science processes used in this activity are observing, classifying, recording data, communicating, and using knowledge to solve problems.

Materials Needed:

• Assortment of gummy Bears randomly portioned into small Ziploc baggies (about 10-15 for very primary grades, larger numbers for older grades)
• Gummy Bears sorting sheet
• Gummy Bears Tally Sheet
• Graphing sheet (plain and with bears)
• Large Gummy Bear pattern

Directions: Key Question: How many Gummy Bears are in your baggie?

1. Distribute a small baggie of Gummy Bears to each small group of students.
2. Have students estimate how many bears are in their baggie.
3. Record estimates on a chalkboard or overhead. Ask questions about the estimates listed. Do you see your age? Can you find a number that is the same as 4 + 3, 10 - 2, or 3 more than 9, etc.
4. Sort bears according to color on sorting sheet.
5. Make a record of the number of bears on sorting sheet.
6. Build a real graph of bears by forming columns of bear in each color- placing one bear in each square. Which color has the most? The least?
7. Make a representational graph by coloring the pictures of the bears and placing a picture in each square as you remove each Gummy Bear.
8. In the large Gummy Bear pattern, draw or write a number story about Gummy Bears. For example, three red Gummy Bears and four white Gummy Bears make seven Gummy Bears altogether.

Subject Area: Mathematics

Objectives: Identifying and matching by touching

Materials Needed: (ask the parents to help contribute scraps of fabric)

• Three swatches of corduroy
• Three swatches of cotton
• Three swatches of tweedy wool
• Three swatches of satin or silk
• 5 by 8 index cards
• stapler

Directions:

1. Cut the fabric into rectangles of the size of the large index cards. Have at least three samples of each type of fabric.
2. Staple each swatch of fabric onto an index card.
3. Have the children find the fabrics which feel the same and place these cards together to make a set.

Subject Area: Science

Objectives:

1) The students will be able to name/draw 3 differences between human teeth and bear teeth.

2) The students will be able to name ways to help keep your teeth "happy".

Materials Needed:

• Animal teeth (real or clay models)
• Dentist's model of teeth
• Speaker
• Toothbrush

Directions:

1. Ask parents to send any animal teeth they or their older children have collected. If there are none available, set up the display with the clay model of the bear's tooth with the dentist's model of human teeth.
2. Invite a dentist, dental assistant, or a volunteer from the local medical society to make a presentation on dental care.
3. After the visitor leaves, reemphasize the presentation by creating a posterboard of pictures of the main points. Emphasize healthy snacks, as well as care of teeth and gums.

Subject area: Science

Objectives:

1) The students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the hibernation sequence of bears by completing the worksheet provided.

Materials Needed:

• Spring Summer Fall Winter worksheet
• Hibernation Sequence worksheet
• Crayons
• Scissors
• Glue

Directions: Introduce the students to bears hibernation sequence. It would be great to find a book that illustrated this for you, but if you can't just explain the sequence for them.

In summer, Mother bears teach their cubs to find food and be safe.

1. In summer, mother bears teach their cubs to find food and be safe.
2. In fall, bears eat a lot to get fat.
3. In winter, bears sleep in their dens. This is called hibernation.
4. In spring, bears come out of their dens.

Subject area: Science

Objectives:

1) The students will be able to pick one bear and fill out the "This is a _______ " worksheet.

Materials needed:

• Grizzly Bears information sheet
• Black Bears information sheet
• Polar Bears information sheet
• Alaskan Brown Bears information sheet
• Did you know Koalas and pandas information sheet
• This is a ________ sheets
• Which Bear Am I? Worksheet
• Comparing Real Bears worksheet

Directions:

1. Introduce the students to the four different types of bears. Pass out the worksheet and give the older students time to read over them. Discuss the bears one at a time. Be sure that you review what each one eats, distinguishing characteristics, and where they live.
2. Let each student pick one of the "This is a ________" worksheet and fill it out.
3. Students who are done early may pick another worksheet to do, or color/decorate the one that they have completed.
4. It would be best to do this activity near the beginning of the unit so that the students are familiar with the different types of bears from the very beginning.

Subject area: Science

Prerequisites: The children need to understand Venn diagrams and the definitions of the words real and imaginary. It would also be helpful if this activity was done towards the middle or end of the unit so that they have a basic knowledge base on bears to work from.

Objectives: The students will be able demonstrate knowledge of the differences and similarities in bears, real and imaginary, by using a Venn diagram.

Materials needed:

Real Bear pictures

A teddy bear for each child

Our Teddy Bears worksheet

Teddy Bear Venn Diagram worksheet

Directions: This activity is best done after the Bear Characteristics one.

The students should have each been asked to bring a teddy bear from home a couple days in advance. They should examine their teddy bear and the class should have a discussion. Ask each child to tell the class one characteristic of his/her bear.

Pass out the Our Teddy Bears & Teddy Bear Venn Diagram worksheets and ask each child to fill it out the first one.

After the children have finished their Our Teddy Bears worksheet, ask them to quietly find a partner, and fill out the Teddy Bear Venn Diagram worksheet. (Venn diagrams should have been introduced to the children before this activity.)

Ask the children to find differences between it and the ones that they have been studying. Does your teddy bear eat? Where do they live? How big is your teddy bear?

Bring the class back together and have them discuss their findings for a little while. Then create a large Venn diagram on the board and have the children compare teddy bears in general to real teddy bears.

Subject Area: Art

Objectives: This activity concentrates on improving the fine motor skills of the students.

Materials Needed:

• Brown paper bag
• Bear puppet pattern
• Overall pattern
• crayons
• scissors
• glue
• 2 buttons (real or fake)
• Corduroy

Directions:

1. Color the puppet and overall patterns.
2. Cut them out.
3. Glue the mouth to the bag underneath the flap part (bottom).
4. Glue the top part of head to flat part (bottom) of paper bag.
5. Glue arms, one into each of the side flaps on the bag.

Integration/Extension Ideas: This could be used by the teacher when reading the book, Corduroy, to the children before, or in conjunction with, the math lesson of the same name.

Subject area: Art

Objectives: The students will use their fine motor skills to create their very own bear.

Materials needed: (May want to reproduce patterns on construction paper)

• Head and arm pattern page (2 arms needed)
• Tummy pattern page (1)
• Legs, foot, hand pattern page (2 feet and hands needed)
• Brads
• Crayons, markers, colored pencils
• Fabric (and any other odd art supply you can provide for decorating bears)
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Decorate the bear parts (if not on construction paper) by coloring, gluing, etc.
2. Cut out the bear body parts.
3. Brad the pieces together in the right places (students may need help with this).

Integration/Extension Ideas: The students may use this for their final presentation project.

Bear Walk

On all fours, students practice walking like bears: right hand, left foot-left hand, right foot. Chant the pattern aloud, slowly at first, and then a little faster.

Spring bear-Winter Bear

This is an adaptation of Red light-Green light. The students should all stand in a line. When the instructor yells "Spring bears", the students may move forward. When the instructor yells "Winter bears", the students have to stop in their tracks.

* These two ideas may even be integrated together.

Take a field trip to the ZOO to see the bears (and many other animals) first hand.

Have your students create a class mural on bears.

Have the children design a bookmark of their favorite bear book and have them available at the library circulation desk.

Take the class on a Teddy Bear Picnic. (Information and invitations included.)