Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I see children practicing cutting, that's what I see!

 

Who doesn't love Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  This book gives us a great introduction to Shared Reading and looking at the words in a book.  We practice "reading" the book, identifying color words and sequencing the story with our Pocket Chart activity.  But the biggest thing we do with Brown Bear is practice cutting, gluing and following directions.  We are also reviewing and practicing shapes as we make all of the animal characters from the book. Here are some pictures from when we were making Green Frog.  This is the fourth animal we have made and by this point most are able to complete this independently.  I usually will give the directions to the whole group, give them the paper, check how they are holding those scissors, and let the get to it!  We have already learned and practiced how to use the glue sticks correctly, so they are able to put it together without much help!

 See, I am holding the scissors the right way!

 I can do this!

 Using the gluestick to add the eyes.

 Now where is that black crayon???

 These feet are a funny shape.

 Adding the eyeballs.  I will use green instead!

 This is an awful lot of cutting!

 Sense of accomplishment when it is all put together!

 Keep your eyes on your work.

 Not a problem cutting out the circles for the eyes.

 Hold it steady and cut on the line.

Love that tongue out while he concentrates on cutting!

 

When all is said and done, I ask for some to hang on our board.  This lets those children who want to take them home right away do so and not have to worry about leaving their animals behind.

The Gingerbread Man Welcomes us to Southside!

I always like to start the year with The Gingerbread Man.  This gives us an introduction to folk tales. With different versions of the same story, it gives us a chance to make connections between the texts.  We discuss the different characters and settings in the stories, as well as the different endings.  We can make predictions based on what happened in other versions.  All of these are a good introduction to working with books and beginning comprehension skills.  The Gingerbread Man also gives us a chance to visit different places in our new school as we become more familiar and comfortable with our new surroundings.

 We start off in the cafeteria, where Miss Monica gives us the bad news that the Gingerbread Man has hopped out of the oven and run away.  He does leave a note behind which leads us to...

 The Library,  where Mrs. Graph has another note and more bad news for us.  He was there, but she was unable to catch him.  We read the next note which leads us to...

 The Clinic,  Mrs. Makenna hands over the next note and lets us know he cannot be found until the next day.  We should be able to find him in the office.

 Mr. Dragon gets in on the fun while we explore his office and finally find the Gingerbread Man.

 It is always fun to finally find that  Gingerbread Man.  I love how into it the children get.  They truly believe he has been running around the school and continue to look for him as we wait to go find him in the office.

 No one really ever asks how he gets back on the tray...ahh the magic of a 5 year old!

 We just know that we got him and he looks ready to eat.

 I always like to cut him up, but leave the head intact, just for fun! 

 Finally he goes the way of all Gingerbread Men...We get to eat him!

 Opinions on how he tastes are usually mixed, but I am encouraged because all of the children are at least willing to try!