BEAR SAYS THANKS activities and lesson plan ideas

This BEAR SAYS THANKS Activities and Interactive Read Aloud Resource Book Companion Packet includes lesson plans, reading comprehension questions, vocabulary, grammar, phonics, writing and word study activities with both printable and digital student pages.

Following an interactive read aloud of the picture book, BEAR SAYS THANKS by KARMA WILSON, choose from the included collection of either printable activities or go paperless and use the digital activities to practice standards-based skills. We've even included editable teaching slides themed to match the book!

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:

◼️READING STRATEGIES

☐ SUMMARIZE / RETELL

☐ ANALYZING SETTING

☐ SEQUENCING

☐ RHYME | RHYTHM | REPETITION

☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ PRONOUNS

☐ IRREGULAR VERBS

☐ PREPOSITIONS

☐ HOMOPHONES

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ SHARING

☐ MANNERS

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

It is a cold day and Bear is alone in his cave feeling bored. He decides he would like to invite all of his friends over for a feast! However, when Bear opens his cupboard he is disappointed to find that it is empty! That’s when Bear’s friend Mouse arrives with a pie to share with Bear! He thanks her for sharing the pie.

Throughout the book, Bear’s different friends arrive, each with a different food to share. Hare brought muffins, Badger brought fish, Gopher and Mole brought honey nuts, and Owl, Raven and Wren brought pears and herbs. Every time a new friend arrives with food, Bear says thanks.

Once all of his friends are there, Bear realizes he has nothing to share! He feels bad that they’ve all brought food and his cupboards are bare. His friends reassure him that it is okay, he has his stories to share.

The friends enjoy sitting around the fire eating the feast and chatting with one another. All the friends are grateful for the food and company.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables