Brown Bear Brown Bear

by Stacy

Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle is a fantastic speech/language/literacy tool. Like all Eric Carle books, I love the illustrations. I love the repetition that this story provides and the flexibility it allows in targeting speech, language, and early literacy goals. Kids love the repetition and how they can join in reading the story.

Speech Activities:

Because Brown Bear Brown Bear is a repetitive book, it is great for kids with motor planning challenges who need extra speech practice.

You can find target words on the Brown Bear Speech Chart.
While retelling the story have your child think about their target sound (you can use the story props as visuals).

Language Activities:

Vocabulary

Concepts –
- Brown Bear Brown Bear easily targets colours
- use the story props to focus on using sequencing concepts (first, then, next, when, after, last, etc.).
- try making up your own Brown Bear story using other concepts (e.g., sizes, shapes, etc.). Little Mouse, Little Mouse what do you see? I see an enormous elephant looking at me… Scary snake, scary snake what do you see? I see a slow turtle looking at me…
Describing – describe the animals in the story – talk about the colour, body parts, what they eat, how they move, etc..
Comparing and contrasting – compare and contrast the animals in the story to real-life animals (e.g., the cat in the story is purple but a real cat would be…).
Categories – try sorting the animals from the story props into categories (e.g., by body part, where they live, etc.). You could also sort the memory cards or the bingo calling cards.
Fancy Words – grow your child’s vocabulary while describing the animals:
- camouflage
- carnivorous
- enclosure
- endangered
- habitat
- herbivorous
- mammal
- nocturnal
- omnivorous
- predator
- prey

Grammar

Plurals – use this Brown Bear game board to collect animals. Count how many animals you have at the end. (Here are the directions.)
Pronouns – lots of repetition of “you” (“What do you see?”) and “I” and “me” (“I see a…looking at me.”). This story uses “we” and “us” at the end of the story (“We see…looking at us, that’s what we see.”). You can use the read along visuals to practice “What do you see?” and “I see a…looking at me.”
Prepositions – this story uses “at” (“looking at me”).
Verbs – lots of repetition of “see”.
Questions formation –
- try using the read along visuals to practice asking “What do you see?”
- try playing go fish to practice “do you…?” questions

Following Directions

Play Simon Says using the story props (Simon Says put the brown bear in the cupboard. Simon Says put two animals under the chair.)
Use the game board (here are the directions) to practice if…then directions
To build listening skills, try playing listening bingo. These bingo boards encourage careful listening (e.g., black bear vs. brown bear, blue bird vs. red bird).

Early Literacy Activities:

Phonological awareness –
1. Rhyming –
  1. This book has rhyming built in – …what do you see? …looking at me.
  2. try using Willoughby Wallaby using the story props or bingo calling cards. Willoughby Wallaby wed wird, an elephant sat on a…red bird. Willoughby Wallaby woo worse, an elephant sat on a…blue horse.
2. Sound identification – try hiding the animals (story props) and then give the first sound as a clue about which animal to find. Find an animal that starts with “b-b-b” (e.g., bear or bird). Find an animal that is the colour that starts with “rrrrrr” (e.g., red bird).
Story telling –
1. Because of the repetition, this story makes for an easier re-tell. You can either go back through the book or use the story props to retell (or both).
2. Try making your own book, keeping the same format (____, ____ what do you see? I see…looking at me.) but use other people, animals, or even objects.