How To... Visit Bear Country
By Linda Lindroth

Bears abound in classrooms across the country. Many primary classrooms feature a bear theme during some part of the school year. Why not use this motivational topic to help celebrate the 101st birthday of the teddy bear as well as this year's Children's Book Week? Here are a few ways to incorporate loveable bears in your curriculum – and integrate technology, too!

The president's bear
The teddy bear will celebrate its 101st birthday on November 16, 2003. Students can research President Theodore Roosevelt and the history of the teddy bear, then write a news article about the event. Visit www.teddybearandfriends.com for a history of the first 100 years of the teddy bear and 100 ways to celebrate. Students can even interview family and friends about a special teddy bear in their lives. How did they get their bear? What is the bear's name, and why was that name chosen? Compile the stories in a teddy bear newspaper.

Kids can make their own bear-shaped book by cutting out the bear shape from the reproducible on the next page. Check out www.abcteach.com for other activities and reproducibles about bears including a math record sheet, matching sheets, handwriting paper, creative writing prompts and more.

Famous bear characters
Who hasn't heard of Smokey Bear and his message of preventing forest fires? Make a bear-shaped book about fire safety for younger students. Brainstorm a list of famous bears and write them on bear paws as a border for a bulletin board about bears. Send your students to the computer to research a real species of bear and draw a map of its habitat. Younger students will enjoy bringing in their teddy bears and creating a "zoo habitat" for their bear after learning about real bears at www.bearbiology.com

Don't forget the stars Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. These bears are among the most famous in our night sky, as well as an important part of science curriculum. There are also numerous bear myths and fables to highlight during your bear unit. For more, visit www.bear.org

Use the political cartoon found on the teddy bear history website to start a discussion about TV and cartoon bears. Kids love Fozzie Bear from "The Muppet Show," Yogi Bear and Baloo from The Jungle Book. The Care Bears are popular once again and they offer opportunities for including bears in your character education curriculum. I ask students to select a character trait (perseverance, honesty, respect, etc.) and create their own Care Bears, complete with a name and color that matches the bear's personality. The children then write an adventure story that shows the bear demonstrating its character trait.

Bear books celebration
Take advantage of the popular bears from literature to celebrate Children's Book Week, November 17-23. Some favorites are Corduroy, Winnie-the-Pooh, the Berenstain Bears, Paddington Bear and Little Bear, but I'm sure your students will come up with others.

Create an alphabet book or slideshow presentation for Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. Bring in a digital camera so students can take pictures of things they see around the classroom or school. Revisit Teaching K-8's interview with Bill Martin, Jr. in the April 1997 issue and visit teachingheart.net to find more lessons and activities for the Corduroy books and Brown Bear, Brown Bear....

"Bearly" getting the words out
Gummy bears or bear-shaped crackers are a great motivator for activities that involve counting, manipulating, Venn diagrams or graphing. Be sure to use your word processor for writing letters to your favorite bear characters, or to the author of your favorite book about bears. I hope you'll write to Teaching K-8 to let us know how your students used bears in your classroom.

Linda K. Lindroth is Technology Editor and Web Coordinator for Teaching Pre K-8. She is also a Technology Resource Teacher in a K-5 computer lab in Lexington, KY.

November/December 2003, Vol.34, No.3