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Home / What Is the Real Color of a Polar Bear

What Is the Real Color of a Polar Bear

[actividad en español]

NOTE:  the free printable Templates are found at the bottom of this page.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

book breaks

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See?

(Also check out our Book Break for the sequel -- Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do You Hear?)

About the story:

The repetition and colorful illustrations in this classic picture book by Bill Martin Jr, make it a favorite of many children.  On each page, we meet a new animal who helps us discover which creature will show up next.  "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?  I see a redbird looking at me...".  This pattern is repeated over and over, until the pre-reader can join in with the reader, easily predicting the next lines.  Giggles and raised eyebrows will accompany the story as the animals become stranger and stranger (a purple cat!?).

You can read more reviews, view the front cover or purchase the story at Amazon.com
Or, check out this story in another language:
  • Spanish:  Oso Pardo, oso pardo, que ves ahi?

Author website:  Bill Martin Jr. (the author) and Eric Carle (the illustrator) of this book both have websites.  The sites have info about the people, how they come up with ideas and what else they're working on.  They also often have books for sale (even autographed copies!).

We have lots of animal crafts made from toilet paper rolls, paper, and other materials.  You can look through them to find a few bears, a few frogs, a bird, horse, dog, cat, sheep, etc.  I'm not going to relist them all here.

In this section I've put together some simple pages to go with the story.  You can use them in a number of ways:

Use the sheets as... COLORING PAGES

  • simply print the black and white version of each page and allow the children to color them.
  • How much do they remember:  provide the child with all the colors of crayons they will need to complete the pages, but allow them to try to remember what color each animal should be.
  • Color recognition:  For younger children, you may want to guide them a bit more, focusing on color recognition instead of memory.  Give them a variety of crayons and instruct them to color the bear brown, the bird red, etc.
  • Animal sounds:  As you color the pictures, talk about each animal.  What sound does the animal make?  Where does the animal live?  Has the child ever seen that animal?
  • Writing:  older children can write the color and animal at the bottom of their coloring pages (ex:  BROWN BEAR).  Or, for slightly younger children who are starting to read but cannot yet write, have an adult write each color/animal on a slip of paper.  Allow the children to pick out the proper slips and glue it to their coloring page.

Use the sheets as...  PUPPETS

  • Either complete the black and white sheets as coloring pages (see above)
    OR
  • print the black and white sheets on appropriate colored construction paper
    OR
  • print the color pages
  • Cut out each animal and tape it to a popsicle stick or an unsharpened pencil.
  • If working with a group of children, each one can be a certain animal.
    • When their part of the story comes up, they can wiggle around the puppet and either chant their section of the story or make the animal sound.
    • You can have an animal parade...  Line the children up in the order they are mentioned in the story and let them march around the room, waving their puppets.
  • Animal sounds:  As you color the pictures, talk about each animal.  What sound does the animal make?  Where does the animal live?  Has the child ever seen that animal?
  • Color recognition:  First, ask all the bears to stand up and wave their puppets (or make their animal sound), then all the birds, etc.  Then ask all the people with BROWN animals to stand up, then all the RED animals, etc.

Use the sheets as...  FELT BOARD CHARACTERS

  • Either complete the black and white sheets as coloring pages (see above)
    OR
  • print the black and white sheets on appropriate colored construction paper
    OR
  • print the color pages
  • You can cover with clear contact paper or laminate if you want them to last longer.
  • Cut out each page.
  • Cut out a small piece of coarse sandpaper and tape or glue it on the back of each animal (if you laminated, it will need to be a larger piece of sandpaper).  The sandpaper will allow the characters to stick on your felt board.
  • If working with a group, give each child an animal.  As you read the story, have the children bring up the appropriate animals and put them on the board.
  • Animal sounds:  As you color the pictures, talk about each animal.  What sound does the animal make?  Where does the animal live?  Has the child ever seen that animal?
  • Color recognition:  First, ask all the bears to stand up and put their animals on the felt board (or make their animal sound), then all the birds, etc.  Resdistribute the animals.  Now ask all the people with BROWN animals to put on their animals, then all the RED animals, etc.

Templates (in order of appearance in the story):

  • Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
  • Change your page margins to zero (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).  See print help for more info.


BROWN BEAR    (color)   or  (B&W)

REDBIRD             (color)   or   (B&W)

YELLOW DUCK   (color)   or  (B&W)

BLUE HORSE       (color)   or   (B&W)

GREEN FROG      (color)   or   (B&W)

PURPLE CAT       (color)   or   (B&W)

WHITE DOG         (color)   or   (B&W)

BLACK SHEEP     (color)   or   (B&W)

GOLDFISH            (color)   or   (B&W)

MOTHER / TEACHER                               (color)   or   (B&W)

GROUP OF CHILDREN / STUDENTS   (color)   or   (B&W)

Print friendly version of these instructions

What Is the Real Color of a Polar Bear

Source: https://www.dltk-teach.com/books/brownbear/