The Three Bears

Three Brown Bears (Three Blind Mice)

Three Brown Bears,
Three Brown Bears,
See all their beds.
See all their chairs.
The mommy cooked in
A big brown pot,
The daddy’s porridge was way too hot.
The baby bear
Always cried a lot.
Three Brown Bears.
Three Brown Bears.
-Judith McNitt

Hibernation (Allueta)

Hibernation, time for hibernation,
Hibernation, time to go to sleep.

In the winter where’s the bear?
Sleeping in its’ den or lair.
Where’s the bear? Den or lair.
Oh….

Hibernation, time for hibernation
Hibernation, time to go to sleep.

Hibernation Song (Are You Sleeping)

Are you eating,
Are you eating,
Little Bear?
Little Bear?
Eating nuts and berries,
For the long hard winter,
Little bear.
Little bear.

Are you sleeping,
Are you sleeping,
Little bear?
Little bear?
Sleeping through the winter,
You are hibernating,
Little bear.
Little bear.

Are you waking,
Are you waking,
Little bear?
Little bear?
Now that it is springtime,
Sleeping time is over,
Little bear.
Little bear.

-Linda Ludlow
The Best of Mailbox Series, Bears

The Three Bears Song (Pop Goes the Weasel)
-author unknown

Goldie came to a house in the woods
Inside all was quiet.
She saw cereal in three different bowls
And said, “I think I’ll try it.”

“The first bowl is much too hot.
The second’s too cold-I hate it!
But the third bowl tastes just right!”
So Goldie quickly ate it!

Goldilocks went to another room
Inside all was quiet.
She found three chairs, looked at each,
And said, “I think I’ll try them.”

“The first chair is much too hard.
The second’s too soft I fear,
But the third chair feels just right!”
Then she sat and broke it. Oh dear!

Goldie next climbed into a bed.
And after she closed her eyes
The three bears came back to their home,
And found her-what a surprise!

“Who’s in my bed?” cried Baby Bear.
“Who’s that in our house?”
Goldilocks awoke and ran away
As quickly as a mouse.

The Bear Game

-Betty Lynn Scholtz
The Best of Mailbox Series, Bears

Books to Read

Jamberry by Bruce Degen
Big Bad Bruce by Bill Peet
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
The Three Bears by Jan Brett
Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst,Simone Abel
The Silly Story of Goldie Locks and The Three Squares by Grace MacCarone
Bears in the Night by Jan and Stan Bernstain
Brown Bear, Brown, Bear, What do You See by Eric Carle
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Jesse Bear, What will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom,Bruce Degen
The Bear’s Toothache by David McPhail
This is the Bear and the Picnic Lunch by Sarah Hayes and Helen Craig
Two Bear Cubs by Ann Jonas (non-fiction)
Beware of the Bears by Alan MacDonald and Gwyneth Williamson
Blackbear Cub by Alan Lind (non-fiction)
The Bernstain's B Book by Jan and Stan Bernstain
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall
Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett
Skyfire by Frank Asch

Coloring Pages

Please visit Jan Brett's site at http://www.janbrett.com/goldilocks_coloring_page.htm for an adorable coloring page.

Check out Goldilocks' Coloring Collection at http://www.rosestudios.com/Home/colorgoldilocks.htm for a couple of pages including one that could be used as the cover to a book.

Miscellaneous: Visit http://ww2.saturn.stpaul.k12.mn.us/kids/stories/bears.html to hear an audio clip of a bear growl, photos of real bears and lots more.

Visit this site http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/art/storytelling/bears/storytellingbears.html for bear masks to print out and make.

I usually do a unit on bears in February which is dental health month. A nice way to start the unit is with The Bear’s Toothache by David McPhail. I follow up this story with activities that focus on dental health. We make a bear puppet (see photo) to emphasize the importance of brushing and complete a couple of worksheets on the importance of proper nutrition for healthy teeth.

As a center I set up a dentist's office. Let the kids imagination do most of the work. I give them toothbrushes and floss (I got this free from the dentist) and set up the stuffed animals as patients. I don't like them to play with the children as customers because I don't want the toothbrushes going into their mouths. I give them a large white men's shirt to use as the dentist's smock. I'm going to the dentist soon myself and hope to ask him for copies of my x-rays so that the students can use those in the center as well. This year we have a dental hygienist visiting the classroom to show the children the proper way to brush their teeth.

The children watch a videotape that I got free last year from Delta Dental of New Jersey. Your local Dental association may have something similar. This tape is wonderful, very informative and fun. Visit http://www.deltadentalnj.com/ to order one. Ask for their educational packet for schools. They also have a program in which you can request Captain Supertooth to visit your school. Click on Captain Supertooth and you will see in the last paragraph a place to send e-mail requesting the educational packet and free video. This comes with a nice poster of Captain Supertooth as well. Again, this is only available to New Jersey teachers but your local Delta chapter may have a similar program.

You may also want to cover fire safety during your unit on bears. Visit Smokey the Bear's site at http://www.smokeybear.com/hom_main.html for online games, bear facts and coloring pages ( #29 is especially cute). I think it is important to discuss protecting our environment for the animals. Not only protecting against careless fires but keeping our forests and woodlands clean and pollution free. You may want to talk about the impact of pollution and the fact that sometimes animals swallow parts of cans and bottles and choke. This is a good time to take a nature walk. Provide students with plastic gloves and bags and let them collect litter around the school grounds. Check out this site for Smokey's coloring book which teaches children Smokey's five safety rules http://r05s001.pswfs.gov/stanislaus/kidcenter/color.htm.

To make hibernation a memorable concept for your students have the children decorate a box to look like a cave, then have the class bear hibernate until the first day of spring. Another great activity to focus on hibernation is to use a brown grocery bag to create a cave. Place the bag on a table so that the folded bottom is face up and cut straight across leaving an inch across the bottom. Then unfold the bag and cut a u-shape opening on the front. I then have the kids color a bear head and paws which they glue inside and just outsidethe cave bag (see photo). The bear's head is actually stapled to the inside and then I pop him out.

The black bear is the most commom and mildest-tempered bear in the forest. It is an excellent climber and swimmer and can run faster than a man. It has a keen sense of smell, a long striaght nose, large ears and short, sharp claws. It has short but powerful legs and can stand on its hind feet. The male is called a boar. The female is called a sow. It usually weighs less than 300 pounds and may live to be 30 years old.

Black bears eat berries, fruit, carrion, fish, leaves, buds, honey, eggs, nuts, blossoms, and small mammals. It normally eats about 12 pounds a day. In late summer, bears go into a feeding frenzy. Perhaps the reason is that they have to buid up a layer of 5" thick fat to last through a 5 month "hibernation".

A black bear is always found where there are trees to climb. It usually lives alone. It must have a large area in which to find food to stay alive. Around September, the near finds a cave or hole under a tree trunk and begins to line the den with dried grass and leaves. When heavy snows come, it crawls in and goes into a degree of hibernation, not eating or drinking for several months. Cubs are born to the female at this time. The cubs are the size of a kitten, toothless and blind, weighing less than 1 pound. At the end of 3 months, the cubs may weigh 10 pounds. During this time, the cubs drink milk and stay warm by themother's body. When sprong comes the cubs are old enough to tumble outside, growl, chase each other and climb trees. The mother teaches them how to swim, hunt and fish. The cubs will spend all summer, fall and through the next winter with their mother.

Cubs are preyed upon by cougars, wolves and wolverines.

Black bears can be brown, tan, reddish in color or black.

In 1902, while he was hunting, Theodor Roosevelt refused to shoot a black bear. Toy bears were created, celebrating the event and those toys were calles "Teddy Bears".

-This information comes from "Come With Me" an Integrated Science Series: Animals through the Seasons. This package which I purchased last year is excellent and covers various animals, seasons, hibernation, migration and estivation. The package includes bulletin board and center ideas. I use this source for about three weeks during the bear unit. To purchase this package from Honey Pots Press at Kindergarten Connection call 1-559-322-9668 or visit http://www.kconnect.com/kc-hpp.html.

Before starting the unit create a KWL chart about bears. This chart will document what the students know about bears before beginning the unit, what they want to learn and then what they learned. I like to write what they learn as we go along.

After reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears have a discussion about Goldilock's actions. Should she have gone into a stranger's house? Should she have eaten their food and used their things without permission? Follow this story up with Beware of the Bears by Alan MacDonald. This story takes place as soon as the bears get home. They are very angry at Goldilock's actions. They decide to take revenge and follow her to what they think is her house. They wreck the place only to discover that it is not Goldilock's house at all but the home of the Big Bad Wolf. This story promotes further discussion about what is right and wrong.

Compare Goldilocks and the Three Bears to a non-fiction story about bears. Use a venn diagram to compare real bears to fictional bears. Write a class story about Goldilock's adventures with different animal family. Write a class story in which the three bears meet another famous threesome such as the three pigs, three kittens or three goats.

I read the story of Los Tres Osos published by Bilingual Educational Services, Inc. 2514 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90007, 213-749-6213. We made puppets of the bears to teach the vocabulary- el papa (the father), la mama (the mother), and el bebe (the baby). We used the puppets (see photo at end) to reinforce the vocabulary grande (big), mediana (medium), and pequeno (little). The children retold the story mostly in English but using the Spanish vocabulary words above. Below is a very short and simple play adaptation of the Three Bears that I wrote for second graders.

Los Tres Osos

Spanish Narrator: Un dia la mama cocino una sopa deliosa.

El Papa: La sopa esta muy caliente.

La Mama: La sopa esta muy caliente.

El Bebe: La sopa esta muy caliente.

English Narrator: So los tres osos decided to go for a walk in the woods while their "sopa" cooled.

Spanish Narrator: Entonce viene la nina llamda Bucles de Oro.

English Narrator: She went right into "la casa" de los tres oso. She tried the soup.

Goldilocks: Esta sopa esta muy caliente.

Esta sopa esta muy fria.

Esta sopa esta perfecta!

English Narrator: Then Bucles de Oro decided to rest in a chair.

Goldilocks: Esta silla grande esta muy dura.

Esta silla mediana esta muy suave.

Esta silla pequena esta perfecta!

English Narrator: Then Bucles de Oro decided to take a nap.

Goldilocks: Esta cama grande esta muy alta.

Esta cama mediana esta muy baja.

Esta cama pequena esta perfecta!

English Narrator: Los tres Osos came home and found Bucles de Oro. Goldilocks woke up and was afriad. She ran away.

Goldilocks: Ay! Dios mio!

Help with Translation

One day the mother cooked a delicious soup. Father Bear said, "My soup is too hot." Mother Bear said, "My soup is too hot." Baby Bear said, "My soup is too hot."

Then along came the girl called Goldilocks. She said," This soup is too hot/too cold/ just right. This big chair is too hard. This medium sized chair is too soft. This little chair is just right. This big bed is too high. This medium sized bed is too low. This little bed is just right."

Use teddybear counters for patterning, sorting, and number stories. Put a bunch of teddybear counters in a jar for estimation. Have students guess how many counters are in the jar. Give them cups and more teddy counters and let them try to figure out how many are in the big jar. Count the bears in the big jar. Record the amount with tally marks. Use the counters to teach weighing. Have students figure out how many teddies will equal the weight of an eraser, a glue bottle, a block, etc. Program plastic bowls with numbers 1-10 or 11-20 (you'll need a lot of counters) and have students count out that many teddies per bowl.

Use Gummi Bears and Teddy Grahams for an exciting extension to the activities above.