Beary good facts about bear books

Students will begin to differentiate between fiction and non-fiction as general genres.

A lesson plan for grade K English Language Arts and Information Skills

By Floanna Long

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Related topics

• Learn more about animals, bears, compare and contrast, fiction, information literacy, language arts, non-fiction, read-alouds, and similarities and differences.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• enjoy having a story read aloud.
• discuss the various parts of a story as they listen to the stories: Moonbear’s Friend and Just Like Daddy by Frank Ashe.
• acquire facts about bears from the teacher who will share small parts of a non-fiction book about bears.
• have fun moving around the library in the bear-walk.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

25 minutes

Materials/resources

• Moonbear’s Friend and Just Like Daddy by Frank Asch and a well-done non-fiction book about bears, such as Bears by Bobbie Kalman & Tammy Everts
• Space to sit comfortably and move around.
• graphic organizer
• Prepare a student ‘take home’ paper, explaining fiction and non-fiction, have a picture similar to Frank Ashe’s style of illustration beside a drawing looking like a real bear.

Technology resources

• Use appropriate software to prepare the student handout. Kidspiration is recommended. Microsoft Word, also, has a graphic organizer feature.
• Use the United Streaming site to download and show video snippets of examples of factual video and fiction video with regard to bears.

Pre-activities

• Students will need to have developed group skills of listening and sitting quietly for a short period of time.
• Students will need to have developed oral language skills for sharing comments and information by raising hands, taking turns, etc.

Activities

1. Students should enter the library and be seated quietly.
2. The Library Media Coordinator will lead a discussion based on questions similar to the following:
   
   Why do you like to have books read to you? Do people read for reasons other than just enjoyment? Such as, making cakes, fixing things, to find out facts, to give information and so on.
3. Help students identify differences between books which are for entertainment and those for learning information.
4. Read aloud Just Like Daddy. Discuss what is real and what is imaginary in the story. Use the non-fiction book to show examples of how bears fish, what bears eat, where they sleep, the “clothing” of real bears and how they walk (feet and hands on the floor, rear in the air).
5. Use the United Streaming site to view snippets of video from the “Animal Profiles,” Malaysian Sun Bears, Grizzly Bears, and/or Polar Bears. If your school system does not provide United Streaming services, use small portions of other videos, such as, Berenstein Bears and an Eyewitness video.
6. Discuss the likenesses and differences in the books. A graphic organizer may be developed for demonstrating these comparisons.
7. The students have been sitting a long while by now. Time to move. With one student, demonstrate “the bear walk” - feet and hands on the floor, rear in the air. Starting one row at a time, allow the children to bear walk around the space. Quickly, review the two books and end the class with children sharing big (but gentle) bear hugs with each other.

Assessment

Assessment for this lesson will be strictly teacher observation of the children’s attention and enjoyment.

Supplemental information

Comments

The children loved this lesson. It actually took two library classes to use and view all the resources. After this we moved into a similar activity for comparing other “everybody fiction” and “non-fiction” literature on the subject of penguins which was a focus in their kindergarten classes.