Written By: Kaitlin Bednarz M.S. CCC-SLP
I see a great book looking at me! The book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle is a popular children's book and often read at home and in speech therapy sessions. Here are some ways you can take this book to the next level to help your child learn new vocabulary!
Animal Sounds
Practice making animal sounds together! Create a back and forth game by making an animal sound and seeing if your child can guess which animal it is. Then let your child make the sound for you to guess!
Basic Vocabulary
Talk about colors, animal names, and body parts while reading.
Verbs
Have fun acting out the animals (i.e., a frog jumps, fish swims)! This will help keep your child engaged in the story and get a movement break. You can also model “turn”
Phrases
Since this book is repetitive, it is a great way to help your child learn short phrases. Some examples include: color + animal (brown bear), I + see, see + animal (see bear), greetings/farewells (hello bear, bye bear), size + animal (big bear, small cat), etc. Add another word to your child’s phrase so he/she can hear an expansion of his/her sentence!
Pronouns “I” and “You”
You can practice pronouns while reading “What do you see?” and “I see”. Use a pointing gesture to help your child understand the difference between “I” and “you”. Take turns reading/asking these questions to help with pronoun use!
Describing
Talk about what the animal looks like, parts of the animal (i.e., beak, 4 legs, whiskers), where the animals live (i.e., woods, water, farm), size of the animal, what the animal likes to eat, etc.
What do I see now? I see a reading experience filled with learning new vocabulary looking at me!