Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

by Bill Martin, Jr. & illustrated by Eric Carle



This is a true favorite in our house right now. I think we read it about at least 4 times each day and it never seems to get old! I like the repetition because, my toddler caught on pretty quickly. She can "read" this book all by herself by looking at the pictures and it's adorable to watch/listen.

Here is a nice little video of the author, Bill Martin, Jr., reading singing his story:



If you do a search for Brown Bear, Brown Bear, you'll find lots of activities and lessons. Other related books are:

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you See?

Book Nook!

We love books in our house and, as a teacher/lover of books, it's important for our family to have the spaces to read!

I was doing some research for posting about setting up a classroom for reading and came across this giveaway! What PERFECT motivation for me to take pictures of our reading spaces! Of course, this puts my classroom setup post on hold! *giggle* Here is a picture of a few of our "Book Nooks"!

In Baby's Room:

The basket and oversized animal pillows are there for the Toddler, when I need to get stuff done in Baby's room. I wasn't able to capture a shot of her reading to her sister...she was having a day! ;)

In Toddler's Room:

On her bed...

Her bookcase...

Her box for the overflow and easy pick-up...

In our "orange room":

Even in the bathroom:

;)

Notebooks

This post is unfinished:

I've mentioned my love for notebooks. You'll have no surprise then, when I tell you that I loved to have my students use notebooks for EVERYTHING. (Add some of the things we did?)

Well, when I learned that I was going to have a professional development day based on Social Studies (Yay!) AND notebooks...well, I just about died. It was LITERALLY the only professional development that I could stand because it was actually innovative/productive. Of course, not every teacher agreed. However, it's the teachers that were so stuck in the dark ages of teaching or *ahem* shouldn't be teaching at all *ahem* that didn't like it.

Well, here's why I LOVE the idea of notebooks (organization, teacher lesson [just like readers/writer workshop], student creative space, place to refer back to later on which illustrates tiered learning!]...AMAZING, right?!

Well, I've done some research on different types of notebook teaching. I don't think that there are a lot of things out there, 'cause it does require a little bit more work than a simple worksheet! ;) Here are some links. Plus, if anyone wants to post some links to their notebook samples, I'll gladly add them!

I may even post some of my notebook ideas for toddlers and such as I come along! Ooooo...tutors out there...as I'm thinking of adding myself to this job (awkward sentence) soon, I'm thinking this is an EXCELLENT way to keep all of your client work together! Do you think it could be incorporated?

What is YOUR take on notebooks? What ideas can we get going here?