Bears in the den

Have you used the All About pages in our Pond Coloring Club? They provide a consistent framework for helping your little learners begin to write or plan informational texts. 

Here is one for bears! 

Read some books as a class to research information on grizzly bears. The National Geographic website is always an excellent source for children too.

Ask your students to recall some information you found as a class and do some collaborative writing. Record a few simple facts that your young learners can practice reading. They can then copy some facts down on their page, retrieving it from your modelled writing chart or encourage them to go back to the books and website and find more to write about. 

After writing your students could combine their pages for a class book about bears or put them on display to celebrate their developing writing skills. 



Also in the Coloring Club today we have a quick craft template for integrating with your work work. Your students will write words in the bear's den.

Focus on words that include the -en family and make a class chart or sound-them-out on your board. 



Encourage your learners to find more words for bear to put in his den!



Here is a little no-prep game to play with your en words:

Bear's Noisy Den

• tell your students that bear is getting ready for a big sleep in the den
• because Bear will be in the den all winter long, he needs to finish eating all the food and tidy up, so it's cosy and neat for a peaceful sleep
• bear has found lots of letters in the den that are making sounds
• listen for the letter sounds and say the word, helping Bear to tidy them up
• (now sound out words for your students to listen and say):
• d-e-n
• h-e-n
• m-e-n
• p-e-n
• t-e-n
• y-e-n
• z-e-n
• th-e-n

I hope your students have fun learning about bears or other animals in the All About pages - if you have a request for a new page, be sure to let me know!