Once Upon a Book ~ Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

 Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

By Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

Summary:  A cute children’s book, filled with predictable rhyming, bright colors, and precious animals.  Find out what each animal is looking at and prepare yourself for a surprise at the end!

Bible Verse

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:25)

  

The unit we did for Eric Carle actually was an entire Granola School learning experience.  Eric Carle is by far one of my favorite authors/illustrators.  Therefore, our entire family joined in on the fun.



The way Eric Carle books are created is very unique. 

Crafts



We first learned how to paint like Eric Carle.  See this video to learn for yourself!  (Note:  Eric Carle uses tissue paper.  In light of how fragile this medium is, I opted for actual watercolor paper.)

Supplies:

• watercolor paper
  
• jumbo paint brushes
  
• washable tempra paint
  
• smock

Directions:

Read a few Eric Carle books.  Briefly talk about using color and long brush strokes.  Allow your child to fill their paper with paint, mixing the colors however they wish.  Allow to dry. 



If you want to further understand the process Eric Carle goes through to create his art work, then watch this video demonstrating how he created the Hungry Caterpillar. 

Lapbook Ideas
 
Sometimes there is no need to reinvent the wheel.  I simply headed on over to Carisa’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Tot Book site and both downloaded and printed her entire Tot Book! 



Here are some ways that we used the Lapbook . . .

• I read the story to Mr. Smiley.

• After each animal, his job was to find the animal and velcro it back onto the correct shadow.  This printable is available from Making Learning Fun.

 

• Mr. Smiley also attempted to velcro the Brown Bears according to size.

• You can also have your child stack all of the Eric Carle books in your house!  Works for us!

• We used Do-A-Dots and painted all of the animals in Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  These quick and easy pages can be found here.

• Learn colors with Carisa’s Coloring Animal Learning book . . . I said the color and then gave him the correct Do-A-Dot Marker and he pounded away!

• Counting Numbers

• Matching animals . . . you can also vary this activity by having your Tot put like colors together, all heads, all tails, etc.

Want to see what's coming next (and books we've done in the past)? Click here to see our Once Upon a Book webpage!