Spring is here, which means it’s time to pull out my favorite “Bear” book of the whole series… “Bear Wants More.”
I love using book series like the Bear books or the Turkey books throughout the year because the characters, and, in the case of the Bear books, the setting, become familiar and the style is similar throughout the books, which helps with learning story grammar parts and their recall and ability to retell the sequence of events.
Here’s what I love specifically about “Bear Wants More”-
For starters, like most of the other Bear books, it has repetitive language.
In this case, “Bear wants more” or “he still wants more” is repeated throughout the book, so I love that even my late talkers in class can fill in “more” with a word or sign, or you can program the repetitive phrase onto a big mack switch if need be.
Core Vocabulary: “eat,” “want,” and “more” are core words repeated throughout the story, that are perfect to model with AAC while reading the story! I also like “go” because they go to different places in the story (the strawberry field, clover patch, pond, cave) for Bear to find food.
Follow up with “eat” and/or “more” by feeding Bear food during and/or after the story! Use a printable bear face with a container of some kind, or, if you happen to have one, a bear puppet. You could also attach bear ears to a bowl like I did below (right) and pretend to feed the bear that way!
Vocabulary: Verbs
The Bear books are also great for introducing some Tier 2 vocabulary words. “Bear Wants More” has some great verbs to learn and act out!
These include: nibble, scamper, tromp, shuffle, romp, pry, gobble. Any book with actions to act out is a winner in my book because it naturally incorporates movement while learning!
Some of the more basic verbs to act out are: bake, decorate, eat, rub, sniff, tug, push, open, roar
Vocabulary: Basic Concepts
-“Bear Wants More” incorporates basic concepts thin, wide, big, and hungry/full into the story. We recreate characters and objects from the story using play dough mats that target these concepts!
Articulation: If you’re using this book at circle and want your speech sound kids to get some practice, too, have them try some of the words in the story with their sounds. I listed some of the more predominant ones below:
B: but, big, bear (these 3 repeat a lot!), bake, back, badger, nibble, gobble, rub,
M: mouse, much, more, might, tummy, yummy, home,
K: can’t, cake, ache, bake, wake, back, squeak, luck, stuck, snack, decorate, acorn,
F: fish, fishin’, fine, follows, feast, full, shuffles, sniff, snuffle
S blends: sweet, scamper, squeak, strawberry, snack, still, smell, sniff, snuffle, stuck, stick, snuggles, snores
R blends: tromp, fruit, ground, grow, friend, fresh, tree, breeze, front, presents, grass
SH: fish, fishin’, shore, shuffle, fresh, shoots, push(es)
CH: clover patch, lunch, crunch, munch, catch(es), much)
RETELL AND STORY GRAMMAR:
Like I said at the beginning of this post, the Bear books are great for story retell/sequencing and learning story grammar parts. What was Bear’s problem? WHERE did Bear go? WHO took him? What did they do? How did he feel?
Characters: Bear and all his woodland animal friends
Setting: the woods
Problem: Bear was hungry
Plan: Find something to eat
Action: Bear ate all of his grass
Outcome: Bear wanted more to eat
Problem: Bear was still hungry
Plan: Go with Mouse to the strawberry field
Action: Bear ate strawberries
Outcome: Bear still wanted more
..and so on and so forth!
You can find the book on Amazon here, and you can find all of these visuals and more activities in my “Bear Wants More” book companion on TeachersPayTeachers. Which “Bear” book is your favorite?
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