Books for Teaching With Bears

Unit Plan: A Beary Good Beginning

These books have a bear as the main character or offer facts about bears. They can be read as pure enjoyment, used to make innovations, dramatized, or made into pocket chart stories.

10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle
Ten little ducks go on their own separate journeys of exploration and adventure to all parts of the globe.

Classroom Tip: Introduce ordinal numbers using this book.

A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
All creatures have a color of their own... except for chameleons. This sad creature wants a color of his own in this story about individuality, friendship, and colors.

Classroom Tip: Children can relate to feeling they don’t fit in. Use this to prompt discussion about this.

Care Bears (any story) by Nancy Parent
These adorable bears teach children the importance of caring for others and sharing their feelings.

Classroom Tip: These stories each touch on various themes such as friendship, helping others, being together, etc.

Corduroy’s Day: A Counting Book by Don Freeman
This beautifully illustrated story of a teddy bear’s adventure in a department store teaches important lessons.

Classroom Tip: Use this book to discuss quantity.

Sesame Street 1,2,3: Count With Me by Naomi Kleinberg
Elmo and Ernie count zoo animals from 1 to 10.

Classroom Tip: Innovations can be made by changing the adjective and the animal in the sentences. This book lends itself well as a pocket chart/sentence strip story.

Sleepy Bear by Mem Fox
Mother Bear tucks in her six cubs, sending each of them off on dreamy adventures with their own hibernation-time rhyme.

Classroom Tip: This book can be used for ordinal numbers and sequencing. For example, who fell asleep first, second, and so on.

Snappy Little Colors by Kate Lee and Caroline Repchuck
Imaginative illustrations that teach colors jump right off the pages of this rhyming pop-up book.

Classroom Tip: Teach color words, the color of animals and the sound they make.

Spot’s Favorite Colors by Eric Hill
Spot, a precocious puppy, has many fun adventures.

Classroom Tip: This is an easy-to-read book that children can read by themselves.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Peek-a-Boo by Judith Moffatt
Teddies in many sizes, shapes, and colors go through their paces, moving to the words of action-packed verse.

Classroom Tip: Use this book and dramatize the actions.

Teddy Bears’ Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy
Adorable teddy bears enjoy a picnic with their friends; the book is based on Kennedy's famous teddy bear song.

Classroom Tip: This book is a good way to reinforce rhyming.

What’s a Pair? What’s a Dozen? by Stephen R. Swinburne
The book includes an introduction to number-related words like "single, double, and couple," and prefixes like "uni-, bi-, and tri-".

Classroom Tip: Introduce vocabulary and number concepts.

Where’s My Teddy? by Jez Alborough
Eddie's in for the adventure of his life after he discovers that his teddy bear has grown much too big to cuddle.

Classroom Tip: This book is a great read aloud.