Reading and Writing

Bear Unit

Unit Goals:
Students will take prior knowledge and visual clues from the stories to visualize, retell, and
answer questions about the text. Students will write what they visualized, remembered and
recalled the information during different stories. The students will then present their own teddy
bears and tell what the bear can do, then write what the bear can do.

Curriculum Standards:
Alaska Content Standard – Language Arts – Kindergarten: RL-1.
Alaska Content Standard – Language Arts – Kindergarten: W-1.
Alaska Content Standard – Language Arts – Kindergarten: SL-6.

Grade Level:
Kindergarten

Schedule:
Five (5) daily lessons: 45 minutes each

Prepared By:
Katrina Lee Monta
Fall 2018
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 2
Table of Contents

Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Unit with Daily Lessons ……………………………………………………………………………………...4

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…15

Lesson 1 Project ………………………………………………………………………………………15

Lesson 2 Project ………………………………………………………………………………………16

Lesson 3 Project ………………………………………………………………………………………17

Lesson 4 Project ………………………………………………………………………………………19

Lesson 5 Project ………………………………………………………………………………………20

MAT Unit – Bears Monta 3

Dear Colleagues!

Welcome to the Bear Unit. This unit has been prepared to cover kindergarten reading and

writing standards from the Alaska State Standards. This unit can be combined with the “Bear

Reading Cave” that has been traditionally been created in the kindergarten classrooms.

The “Bear Reading Cave” can be created in an area with butcher paper and lights for

students to have their quiet reading time in an area where they can read to the teddy bears.

Students were able to have a lot of fun with the unit and bring their teddies to school on the last

day of the unit.

Enjoy! And the copies of some of the worksheets and ideas will be attached in the appendix

for printing and re-creating uses.

Thanks! Ms. Katrina

MAT Unit – Bears Monta 4
Lesson Design Template: MAT/Certification Elementary

Candidate Name: Katrina Lee Monta Host Teacher Name: Karyln Thomas
School: Point Higgins Elementary Grade Level: Kinder # of Students: 17
Date & Time of Lesson: 11/5/18 – 11/9/18 @ 0910 Length of Lesson(s): 45 minutes
Topic of Lesson: Reading and Writing about Bears Content Area: Reading and Writing

Materials: Include all materials including types of technology used:

Worksheets (See Appendix); Books: Watch Me Grow Bear published by D.K.; A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman; Red Bear’s
Fun with Shapes by Bodel Rikys; The Three Bears by Paul Galdone; Where’s My Teddy? by Jez Alborough; Pencils; Scissors; Glue
sticks; Coloring utinsels; Overhead camera, projector and screen.

ALASKA CONTENT STANDARD

Alaska Content Standard – Language Arts – Kindergarten: RL-1. With prompting and support, ask and
answer questions about a literary text using key details from the text.
Alaska Content Standard – Language Arts – Kindergarten: W-1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating,
and writing to state an opinion or a preference about a topic or part of a book.
Alaska Content Standard – Language Arts – Kindergarten: SL-6. Speak audibly and express thoughts,
feelings, and ideas clearly in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.

TRANSFER GOAL(S) (transferability)

Students will take prior knowledge and visual clues from the stories to visualize, retell, and answer questions about the
text. Students will write what they visualized, remembered and recalled the information during different stories. The
students will then present their own teddy bears and tell what the bear can do, then write what the bear can do.

STAGE ONE – Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings (meaning)

Enduring Understanding(s):
Students will understand that….
Students will understand that visualizing and retelling can
be done in many different texts, not only picture fiction
books.
Student will understand that their visualization and retelling
can be narrated with words to describe drawings, etc.
What Essential Questions will be Considered?
How can we use our skills from fiction reading to transfer
over to non-fiction reading?
How can we use words to describe our feelings and
opinions about a story or a character?
Why is it important to share out loud our ideas?

Students will understand that part of communication is

orally sharing information that has been compiled by
writing.
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STAGE ONE: Objectives STAGE TWO: Assessments
Evidence of Learning/Accountability -
Formative/Summative/Performance

Knowledge - What students should know…. Assessment(s)/Other Evidence:

K.1 – Students should be able to translate
knowledge about fiction text to the
reading of non-fiction text.
K.2 – Students should be able to utilize their
knowledge of words to describe
their predictions.
K.3 – Students should be able to mentally prepare
to share information about their
teddy bear – prepare for oral
speaking.
Skills - What students should be able to do…….
Pre-Assessment Question: Have you seen a bear?
What do you notice about
bears?
Post-Assessment Question: What can your bear do?
Can your bear act like a
living bear? Share what you
can about your bear.
Assessment(s)/Other Evidence:

S.1 – Students will be able to compare non-fiction Formative Assessments:

texts to fiction texts and use similar
reading strategies to answer.
questions and draw conclusions.
S.2 – Students will be able to adapt their writing
skills to write about their
prediction.
S.3 – Students will be able to execute an oral
presentation describing the
individual teddy bear’s name and
something that the bear can do.
Day 1: Oral Discussion – What are some facts
about bears we read in the
book?
Day 2: Oral Discussion – Do you know your
parents’ cell phone number?
Day 3: Oral Discussion – What shapes do you see
around the classroom that
you could put on your
worksheet?
Day 4: Oral Discussion – Was this story familiar
to you? Have you heard it
be called another name?
Day 5: Oral Discussion – How is your bear
different than real bears?

STAGE THREE: Opportunities to Learn (Acquisition)

Lesson #1:
Introduction/Hook
The weather is getting chilly! The seasons are beginning to change! This summer we have had a lot of
bear activity… lots of bears knocking over garbage cans and messing in the trash. At least it is almost
time for hibernation.

Pre-Assessment Question: Have you seen a bear? What do you notice about bears?

Today we are going to begin our unit on bears – with this unit we will be introducing the reading bear
cave. Over where the kitchen is usually set up you will see that a bear den has been set up by a bunch of
sleepy bears! It will be your job this week to read stories to them to make sure that they fall asleep for
winter.

This week we will read books on bears, write about bears and then bring in our teddy bears to present
them to our friends on Friday.
MAT Unit – Bears
Processes and products for Learning
Opportunities
We are going to begin our unit reading this book:
There is a lot of information in this book, but we
will go over some of it and look at the pictures in
detail.
Formative Assessment: Day 1: Oral Discussion –
What are some facts about bears we read in the
book? We are going to list some of our ideas up on
the board for you to look back on.
Please head back to your seats and open up your
journals to the next blank page. We are going to
write a bear fact and draw a picture.
Here is your sentence starter: A Bear Can _______.
Please take the time to write your sentence starter
and then illustrate a picture to go along with your
fact.
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Strategies for Differentiation/ Multimodal
Instruction/Universal Design for Learning
• Behavioral Management: classroom
attention getter: “class, class” with
the response of stopping and
answering, “yes, yes.”
• Using teaching strategies from
Teaching Like a Pirate. Interacting
with students and getting into
learning with role-playing with
stretching breaks to immolate bears
waking up from hibernation.
• Students may need to be paired
together to ensure that all students
have someone to work with.
• Some students still may need
assistance forming letters – all
assistance will be given when asked,
and when visually seen that aid is
needed.
• Some students may not know that
what bears do in the wild, and that
is okay, we will look up the
information in the rest of the story.
• We share stories if someone has
experience with bears to provide
information.
• We also could look up information on
the iPads about bears.
MAT Unit – Bears
Closure:
We live on an island that has black bears that we see often! Through our reading today we discussed
many facts about bears and wrote a fact in our journal. I am so excited to open up the bear cave for
reading this afternoon during learning center time!
Lesson #2:
Introduction/Hook
Yesterday morning we looked at facts on real bears. Today we are going to read the sequel to Corduroy
that we read yesterday afternoon before the bell rang. We are going to read our story, and then create
our own Corduroy with corduroy overalls!
Processes and products for Learning
Opportunities
We will begin by reading this book:
Formative Assessment: Day 2: Oral Discussion –
Do you know your parents’ cell phone number?
It is important to always know a way to contact
someone who cares for you, in case of emergencies.
Corduroy has been in some situations that would be
very scary for anyone of us, and Lisa made sure he
was prepared with his name on a slip of paper in
his new pocket.
I have printed out your name and a good contact
phone number from your files so that you can
practice and place inside your very own bear
pocket.
You will have the opportunity to use corrugated
paper to simulate corduroy on Corduroy’s overalls.
Here is an example of how you could color your
bear.
After your corduroy is complete we will add a
pocket.
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Strategies for Differentiation/ Multimodal
Instruction/Universal Design for Learning
• Behavioral Management: classroom
attention getter: “class, class” with
the response of stopping and
answering, “yes, yes.”
• Using teaching strategies from
Teaching Like a Pirate. Interacting
with students and getting into
learning with role-playing with
stretching breaks to immolate bears
waking up from hibernation.
• Students may need to be paired
together to ensure that all students
have someone to work with.
• Some students still may need
assistance forming letters – all
assistance will be given when asked,
and when visually seen that aid is
needed.
• Some students may not know that
what bears do in the wild, and that
is okay, we will look up the
information in the rest of the story.
• We share stories if someone has
experience with bears to provide
information.
• We also could look up information on
the iPads about bears.
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 8

Once you have put on a pocket for your bear, you

can practice your phone number and fold it up and
place it in your bear’s pocket!

Closure:

Corduroy is one of my favorite stories; he is a very loveable bear and shows how important it is for all us
to be prepared and looking around for help when we need it. Today you also had an important job of
practicing a contact phone number that may be needed in an emergency. Bears helped teach us an
important lesson today.

Lesson #3:
Introduction/Hook

We are almost half way through our bear unit! We have learned about bears in the wild and how
bears can help us learn an important safety tip. Today we are going on a geometric adventure. What is
a geometric adventure? Well, we are going to look at shapes that are created around our world and
create a picture using some of the shapes.

Processes and products for Learning Strategies for Differentiation/ Multimodal

Opportunities Instruction/Universal Design for Learning

We will begin our lesson today by reading this book:

• Behavioral Management: classroom
attention getter: “class, class” with
the response of stopping and
answering, “yes, yes.”
• Using teaching strategies from
Teaching Like a Pirate. Interacting
with students and getting into
MAT Unit – Bears
Formative Assessment: Day 3: Oral Discussion –
What shapes do you see around the classroom that
you could put on your worksheet?
After discussing some common shapes, and
mentioning that all of our shapes are spelled for us
on the word wall, we will create our own pictures.
Here is our own red bear:
We will first cut out our red bear and put him in
the middle of our worksheet. From here we can
make a picture with shapes and write a sentence
about our shapes.
Monta 9
learning with role-playing with
stretching breaks to immolate bears
waking up from hibernation.
• Students may need to be paired
together to ensure that all students
have someone to work with.
• Some students still may need
assistance forming letters – all
assistance will be given when asked,
and when visually seen that aid is
needed.
• Some students may not know that
what bears do in the wild, and that
is okay, we will look up the
information in the rest of the story.
• We share stories if someone has
experience with bears to provide
information.
• We also could look up information on
the iPads about bears.
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 10
Here is an example of Red Bear with a Pizza:

We are going to write a sentence similar to the

book. Here is the sentence starter: I see a ______.

Closure:

The opportunities are endless to create pictures with shapes! I am pleased that you all were able to see
objects in our world and classroom that would be able to be made out of construction paper. So far bears
have informed us about themselves, kept us safe and let us see the world differently.

Lesson #4:
Introduction/Hook

We have a treat in store for us today! Well, if you like porridge! We are going to read a story that I
think you may be familiar with. Instead of cutting out pictures and pasting them in order to go along
with the story to retell it, we are going to draw and write some words to go along with the retell of the
story.

Processes and products for Learning Strategies for Differentiation/ Multimodal

Opportunities Instruction/Universal Design for Learning

We will begin by reading this book:

• Behavioral Management: classroom
attention getter: “class, class” with
the response of stopping and
answering, “yes, yes.”
MAT Unit – Bears
Formative Assessment: Day 4: Oral Discussion –
Was this story familiar to
you? Have you heard it be
called another name?
We are going to begin by grabbing a lap desk and
sit on the floor to draw our retell together. You will
be given an 11” x 17” paper that is divided into
three sections: a beginning, middle and an end.
After we have discussed and drawn the beginning,
middle and end, we will write some words that
describe the story at that point. Some example
words may be: hot as the porridge was hot in the
beginning; excited as Goldilocks was excited to try
out all of the Bears’ belongings; surprised because
the Bears saw Goldilocks in there house!
Closure:
This story was written to teach us a lesson, to be careful about going into people’s houses and reasons not
to. We practiced our listening skills and were able to recall information from the story and then used our
writing skills to document what was happening in the beginning, the middle and the end.
Monta 11
• Using teaching strategies from
Teaching Like a Pirate. Interacting
with students and getting into
learning with role-playing with
stretching breaks to immolate bears
waking up from hibernation.
• Students may need to be paired
together to ensure that all students
have someone to work with.
• Some students still may need
assistance forming letters – all
assistance will be given when asked,
and when visually seen that aid is
needed.
• Some students may not know that
what bears do in the wild, and that
is okay, we will look up the
information in the rest of the story.
• We share stories if someone has
experience with bears to provide
information.
• We also could look up information on
the iPads about bears.
MAT Unit – Bears
Lesson #5:
Introduction/Hook
Today is a very special day! I am so happy that you all brought a teddy bear to share with us! We are
going to be sharing our bear’s name and something special that our bear can do. This week we have
looked at characteristics of live bears and all the lessons that bears can help us learn. Today we will tell
our own stories about our bears.
Processes and products for Learning
Opportunities
We will begin by reading this book:
This funny story gets us in the mood to think about
our own teddy bears.
Formative Assessment: Day 5: Oral Discussion –
How is your bear different than real bears?
We will be filling out what our bear can do and then
share our ideas with each other.
Monta 12
Strategies for Differentiation/ Multimodal
Instruction/Universal Design for Learning
• Behavioral Management: classroom
attention getter: “class, class” with
the response of stopping and
answering, “yes, yes.”
• Using teaching strategies from
Teaching Like a Pirate. Interacting
with students and getting into
learning with role-playing with
stretching breaks to immolate bears
waking up from hibernation.
• Students may need to be paired
together to ensure that all students
have someone to work with.
• Some students still may need
assistance forming letters – all
assistance will be given when asked,
and when visually seen that aid is
needed.
• Some students may not know that
what bears do in the wild, and that
is okay, we will look up the
information in the rest of the story.
• We share stories if someone has
experience with bears to provide
information.
• We also could look up information on
the iPads about bears.
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 13

After we have completed our worksheet, we are

going to gather in a circle on the floor to share our
teddy bears. During this time I would like you to
share the name of your bear and tell us what your
bear can do that is special.

Post-Assessment Question: What can your bear do?

Can your bear act like a living bear? Share what
you can about your bear.

Discuss some ideas of how our teddy bears are

different than real bears.

Closure:

I am so happy that we had the time to bring in our teddy bears and share them with each other. There
are so many different kinds of bears in our room with different abilities. Our bears can teach us about
themselves, safety, the world around us and how each of us are special and unique in our own way.

We have learned a lot, and now I think it is time we all deserve to find a good book and curl up with our
teddies and prepare for our own hibernation!

Examples of questions for prior to the lesson:

• What are the objectives of the unit? How will you know if the students have met the
objectives?
• The objectives of the unit are to get the students learning about bears and the world
around them through listening to different texts, recalling information, writing our
opinions and thoughts, and then sharing orally what we know about our own bears.
• What provisions are you making for faster and slower learners?
• Provisions have been made through the differentiation that was planned for the
unit. The students in this classroom have expressed self-differentiation by their
abilities to recall information, write text and orally speaking. Adaptations have also
been made so that the students with special abilities will still be able to participate
to the best of their abilities in speaking and writing.
• How do you integrate local knowledge and cultural content?
• Bears have been very active this summer season, and the students are able to relate
to their own experiences or from stories that they have heard.
• How do you use (or not use) technology wisely?
• Some technology was used during this unit. The overhead document camera,
projector and screen are planned to be used to show the students the details of
assignments, as well as writing prompts for different assignments. Some of the
content could have been brought up online to show information, but I believe that
the books selected for this unit were able to show the same information.
• How does this lesson fit into the overall curriculum?
• Bears have typically been taught in the school curriculum before, with the reading
cave. I modified some assignments and chose different books to add new interest.
• Have you changed the lesson plan at all?
• No I did not change the lesson plans prior to the start of the unit.
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 14
Examples of questions for reflection after the lesson:

• How did the unit go?

• I was very impressed with the students throughout the week. With each day the
students were more interested in the bear activities and really wanted to all fit into
the reading bear cave. There were some students crying over not being able to fit
into the cave with other students already in it.
• Did the students meet the objectives? How do you know?
• Yes, the students met the reading, writing and orally speaking objectives. The
students were able to complete the particular day’s assignment and participate
during the oral discussion of the daily formative assessment. There were a few
times where we extended the oral discussion of the questions because the students
were very interested in sharing and creating discussions between each other. It is so
important to allow kindergarteners the opportunity to share and speak with each
other in the classroom that is done in a constructive way.
• Were there any unexpected events? How effectively did you respond?
• There was one unexpected event and the occurred during the third lesson. That
lesson was when the students were supposed to be creating pictures with shapes
with their own Red Bear. Some of the students were able to create scenes out of
paper and write about the shapes that they used. Some students were not able to go
beyond making one shape and writing one word. I realized that I did not prepare
the assignment for the students with different levels of self-sufficiency. I spent more
time with the students that needed additional assistance than I did with the other
students in the class. In the future I would have prepared different worksheets that
had written prompts already printed on the worksheet so that those students could
just fill in the shapes words. Also I would have a print out of the shapes and their
names. I feel that if the words were in front of the students that they might have
more success in writing. Instead of going to find the word on the word wall with the
picture.
• Comment on one student who did particularly well and one who did not meet your
expectations. Why did this happen? What can you do to follow up with the student who did
not do well?
• I had several students that were able to meet all of my expectations in the unit. I
feel that they were able to accomplish these goals because they were prepared to
listen, learn and participate. Those are the main expectations that I have for my
students when we are learning new material. Especially in kindergarten, as many
students may not have the background knowledge that someone else may have. I
felt that there were a handful of students who were not able to meet these
standards by not being focused and/or interested in what we were doing that day. I
often have to deal with behavior in this classroom that distracts from learning.
• Are there any changes you would make in this lesson if you could do it again? Why?
• Yes, I would change the amount of time that the lesson takes. Some days the time
was just right and then other days there was not enough time for the students to
share or complete their assignments for the day. We share a lot orally in
kindergarten and I think it is important to keep all students accountable for their
work. In the future I would like to break up some of the assignments, especially the
ones that have a lot of writing or cutting out of materials. A simple break outside or
just to walk around and stretch would potentially refocus the students for learning.
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 15
Appendix

Project 1 – Example of workbook pages

MAT Unit – Bears Monta 16
Project 2 - Corduroy
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 17
Project 3 – Red Bear’s Fun with Shapes
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 18
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 19
Project 4 – Retell of The Three Bears
MAT Unit – Bears Monta 20
Project 5 – “My bear can…”