A Brown Bear Activity Kids will Love

Brown Bear is a rite of passage in preschool and kindergarten.  In fact, I’d venture to say you’re depriving your students if you don’t introduce them to this beloved classic.  From the predictable text to the focus on colors, Brown Bear activities are perfect for the beginning of school.  I love doing this simple brown bear activity with my class each year.  I bet your class will love it, too!

Story Retelling Cards

While no one can top Eric Carle’s amazing illustrations, I found some pretty cute clipart that features the characters in the book. Guess what?  I’ll share these printables with you at the end of this post!

Print out these character cards and use them for one of these fun Brown Bear retelling activities:

1.  Place the cards on a ring clip in story order.  Include the story ring with a copy of the book in a ziploc bag, and add the Brown Bear retelling label to it.  Add it to your reading center, so students can flip through the ring to help them tell the story.
2. Use the unnumbered character cards and shuffle them up.  Ask students to place them in the correct order to review sequence of events.
3. Use the numbered character cards, and string yarn on each card to make a character necklace.  Have students line up in order, using the numbers to guide them.  Then have them act out the story.  (The numerals are also great for helping little learners master numbers 1-10 and number order!)j
4. Laminate the character cards, and then hot glue a jumbo craft stick on the back of each one.  Place them in the reading center for children to use as puppets to retell the story.

Retelling Bracelet

Let children use pony beads to create a retelling bracelet.  This is always one of my students’ favorite Brown Bear activities!  Students may refer to either the retelling ring or the book to determine the correct order for the beads.  You can use lacing yarn, elastic bracelet string, or even a pipe cleaner to hold the beads.  In preschool, I prefer to use a pipe cleaner since it’s more rigid and doesn’t wiggle around as children slide the beads on.

This makes a great small group activity, but it can also be used as an independent activity during center time.  The children get so excited about their retelling bracelets that they begin telling the story over and over while touching each bead.

Wrapping up Your Brown Bear Activity

I always send home a parent note after we make our bracelets so parents will understand what the bracelet and the colors mean.  The note also guides parents in helping their children remember the animals so they can retell the story.  Many children will wear their bracelets day after day.  Of course, some lose them before they get home! But they remember that experience and talk about it for weeks afterward.

Would you like to do this Brown Bear activity with your preschool or kindergarten learners?  I’ve created a FREE DOWNLOAD just for you! 

You can find the character cards and parent letter in my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY.

 

Looking for more hands-on learning activities for preschool or kindergarten?  Check out these ideas:

• Setting Up and Using Morning Tubs
• How to Use a Visual Schedule in Preschool
• Hands-on Alphabet Activities for Little Learners

Please PIN this post so other teachers can discover this FREE Brown Bear activity!