Materials Required: Brown Bear book (see below), paper, pencil, art supplies (see below)
Concepts Taught: A social studies/art/language arts Internet project for First Graders
Project Title:First Grade, First Grade What do You See? Grade Level: First Grade Students
Subject Areas: Language Arts, Social Studies, and Visual Arts
Procedures:
1. Read aloud the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle.
2. Have the students assist you in making a list of the many things that Brown Bear saw in the story.
3. Ask the students where Brown Bear might be in order to see all of these things. Brown Bear might have lived in a zoo with other animals or a unique pet store, etc…
4. Have the students tell you where they live and identify people, places, or things that they see in their environment. List several of these on the board. (If you need to narrow their suggestions, ask the class if students living outside of this environment would be able to recognize your region by the things that we see? Is there anything on this list that only people living in your region would see?)
5. Reread the story again asking the students to identify the language pattern that repeats throughout the story.
6. Have students verbalize a new story beginning with the words, “First grade, first grade, what do you see? I see a ____________ looking at me.”
7. After each student has verbalized their thought, they should complete the teacher prepared sentence strip: “First grade, first grade, what do you see? I see a/the ____________ looking at me.”
8. Students will create an illustration of the person, place, or thing that they wrote about in their pattern sentence. Colorful illustrations are best. Crayon, paint, chalk, marker, colored pencil, torn paper, and oil pastels are all appropriate. Students may also illustrate their sentence using a computer paint program. The paper size should be no larger than 8 ½” x 11”.
9. Glue a sentence strip to the bottom of each student’s illustration.
10. The class or teacher will need to vote on the one student’s page that best represents their region. This will be the classroom page that will be placed on-line as an ongoing story developed by other first graders around the world.
11. The teacher should scan the student page and send it via email to Linn McDonald at mcdonaldl@district 87.org . or send the original student work postal mail to Teri Merna at Oakland School, 1605 El Oakland Ave, Bloomington, IL 61704. Please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope appropriate to return the original in.
12. Gather the student pages to make a classroom book that students can read and check out from the classroom.
Future Extension Suggestions:
· Read the developing on-line story on Oakland’s website at (http://www.district87.org/oakland/brownbear/).
· As other classrooms submit student work, locate their state on a map and discuss the people, places, or things listed that they see in their environment. Students may be able to identify similarities and differences among particular regions.
Resources and Materials:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. and Illustrated by Eric Carle
8 ½ x 11” drawing paper or similar size
pencil
art supplies as suggested above
1 sentence strip per student- “First grade, first grade, what do you see? I see a ____________ looking at me.”
Optional materials
On-line computer
Scanner to send student work via email
Projection system to view on-line book with the whole class
