Brown Bear, Brown Bear
There are so many ways to expand on this amazing book by Eric Carle! Using both close-ended activities and open-ended play, Brown Bear, Brown Bear can target so many different speech and language goals. Let’s take a look at just a few reasons why it’s one of our favorites:
Common animal vocabulary
Colors
Repetition and Rhyming
Easy “what” questions
Matching
Sequencing
Prediction
Use of “I” and "me” pronouns
Quick and easy read but ability to expand
SOOOOOO many activities and toys to pair with the book
First up, the book! It’s a board book so it’s great for littles and pretty difficult to destroy. The colors are bright, and the pictures are simple. You can start off by just looking at the pictures, labeling animals and/or colors. Once you get into reading the book it’s really engaging by using rhyming and repetition throughout. Because the same phrase is used over and over again it’s perfect to use the “fill in” strategy to see if kids will complete the sentence. For example, saying “brown bear, brown bear, what do you ___?” and seeing if they will fill in the missing word. It’s also great to work on predicting which animal comes next. Once the book is familiar it’s an easy success! I love the use of pronouns “I “ and “me” throughout. This book is a classic that should be on every bookshelf!
I have had these forever and had a hard time finding them online. I finally found them here on the Mudpuppy website and they are actually in stock! I use these in multiple ways to expand on both the vocabulary and the colors in the book. I like to practice matching by turning to back of the book that has all of the animals. I hand the child one magnet and have the match magnet to picture. It’s an exact image, and the colors are a good prompt. Next, I set all of the magnets out on the table (or you can do a smaller field of 3 or 5) and go through the book. On each page the child has to find the magnet in the larger field and identify that way. These magnets are also fun to create scenes on anything metal (a cookie sheet or refrigerator). You can work on sequencing the story, categorizing the animals (ones that have feathers, ones that have a tail, ones that have 4 legs, etc.), working on spatial concepts, or just the idea of “on” and “off.” They have been a durable and useful investment. The box also includes magnets for The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a couple of other Eric Carle books.
This is something I just recently discovered, and I have already incorporated it into this theme and play so much! The Brown Bear Magna-Tiles are so great for both close-ended activities like matching the colored animal to the colored tile and sequencing the book by the tiles. But then you can move into some really fun open-ended play with them! Create boxes, stack, knock down, add other little character toys to create a story, make a ramp and have cars slide down while going over certain animals or colors. The ideas are endless! This set also includes the teacher and several of the children so they can be incorporated into the play as well.
I came across this bulletin board set when I was planning a birthday party for one of my sons (yes, I really love the Brown Bear theme! :)). I didn’t want to just toss it, the pictures are big and bright! I decided to cut mine in half and laminate them (these have also lasted 8 plus years). I work on matching heads to tails, matching colors, and parts of a whole with them. You can also play hide and find games by setting out one half and the child having to seek and find the second part. If you wanted to keep them whole, you could again use them to work on sequencing out and retelling the story, put them on the walls and play “I Spy,” or play motor games such as “jump on the duck, hop over the horse, tip toe around the bird.”
Everyone needs a set of animal cookie cutters, there are so many fun ways to use them! For Brown Bear, I try and find the animals that are talked about in the book. This is a great way to move on to that next level of matching. The cookie cutter animals are not going to look exactly like the animals in the book, so it’s a way to see if your child is carrying over that idea and information. I also try and find the same colors of play dough and create the animals using that color. It’s an option to add in more sensory and tactile activity.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle really has endless possibilities. You can find so many online activities (both free and for pay) to add into your plan. Coloring pages, matching games, word games, it’s all a click away. I also enjoy finding the book online in song format (there are a variety of versions on YouTube) and going through it that way. It’s a great idea to choose a variety of activities that engage kids and use different abilities. Learning these concepts through the visual, auditory and tactile experiences really helps make the information meaningful and permanent.
We hope you check out our ideas, find ones that work for you, and fall in love with this book as much as we have!
You can also listen to our ideas on The Speech Source Podcast. We highlight favorite books, games, toys and puzzles weekly!
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