Little Bear’s Friend
by Else Holmelund Minarik, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)
Little Bear is an I Can Read Book, written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Little Bear is a series of books. It has large type and different stories that are considered chapters by young readers. It is comfortable for emerging readers because the story does not overwhelm them as it is familiar and comfortable.
Beginning reader books should not be so exciting the child is distracted from the text. My son was willing to read this when I highlighted all the words “he.” Little Bear is a boy! Little Bear makes friends with a human, Emily, in this story. Owl and duck are also some of the characters. This was one of the first books my own children read aloud at home.
This free printable Little Bear story writing has creative writing prompts on both primary and plain lined paper. It includes a student and a teacher writing rubric for this story. It is on the free PDFs page for free eMembers. Free to join.
Some classrooms have a visiting bear that is sent home as part of a writing project. My classroom has had a Bear Mountain make such visits. The idea is that when the bear goes home (for a few days, if necessary) the child will write a story about what the bear did at his or her house.
The writing paper is sent home in a three-ring binder with plastic sleeves. Each story is added to a plastic sleeve, which is special and grown-up in first grade. The child returns Bear Mountain in the morning, reads the story to the class, receives applause, and is reinforced for writing a story.
Here is a writing page sample Word Document: Bear Mountain writing page (WORD) and here is the page in PDF format: Bear Mountain writing page PDF
Happy reading, Carolyn
