Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep By: Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple

Genre: Non-Fiction (Rhyming)

Publishing Info: HarperCollins, 32 pages

Awards or honors received: Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep was named a 2005 Golden Kite winner.

Summary: A variety of animals settle down for a winter's nap, knowing that spring will wake them to reenter a warmer, more active world. The book is written in lullaby form which would relax any child before nap time. It teaches about a kindergarten about an important science term (hibernation) and different sets of rhyming words. Each page illustrates a different animal and where they hibernate. The pictures are fiction but the story teaches many facts about the different animals.

Personal rating and reason for rating: ***Good. I liked this book because it would be a great book to introduce the word hibernation. There are many curriculum base activities you could do after reading this book. It was fun to read because you got in a groove when reading because it was written in lullaby form and had lots of rhyming words. I would defiantly use this book when I teach my winter unit and talk about hibernation.

Reading level: Accelerated Reader 3.0 (Third grade)

Interest level: Pre-k through 3rd grade

Possible uses of the text in integrated units of study:

Reading: I could pick one of the animals (the bear) and write the lullaby on large chart paper. Students could come up to the chart paper and circle sight words that they know. (This book had lots of sight words) I would then let them take my sticky strips and place them under the rhyming words. I would have them color code the rhyming words. For example: red sticky strips under the two words like rhyme (snow/slow), green sticky strips under another two words that rhyme (steep/sleep) This helps make the connections for the students. As always, at the end I would ask HOTS questions to check for understanding of the story.

***You could also read this book to review the diagraph ee and ck. (Sleep/black) The students could raise their hand anytime they see or hear the diagraph ee or ck used in the story.

Science/Writing: Ask the students, what is hibernation? How many creatures can you name that hibernate? We would complete a bubble map of the word hibernation. (Hopefully they would name all the animals in the reading selection.) Then I would have the students go back to their seat and copy the bubble map. I would then introduce the animal that we would be learning about that day that hibernates in the winter. (Bear) After completing an interactive Mimio presentation on bears we would make our own bear hibernation out of sheets brought from home. I would have to split the class into two groups. (Boys/girls) Students would have chairs, tape, rubber bands and three sets of sheets and they would have to come up with a way to make a cave for hibernation. We would leave these caves up as long as we could and let the children go inside to complete their SSR time. (Self Selected Reading)

Writing: At the end of the winter/hibernation unit, students could pick their favorite animal that hibernates and complete two sentences about that animal with a detailed setting. The setting should tell me where that animal hibernates at.

Potential problems or difficulties: I do not see any potential problems at this time.