I CAN READ

A Reading Activity for Kindergarteners

Swapna Cherukuri
(Early Childhood Educator)

Introduction

To make reading interesting

and effective for the
children, I have chosen the
concept shared reading. A
story will be shared and read
together in a small group.
For this I have chosen the
book, Brown Bear, Brown
Bear, What Do You See?,
written by Eric Carle,
illustrated by Bill Martin Jr.
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Source: Brown Bill Martin, Jr.

(1967). Bear, Brown Bear, What
Do You See?

About the Book

This book is based on the concept of repetitive

text throughout the story, only with the
characters changing in every sentence. In order
to identify the character in each sentence/page,
there are images of each character with specific
colour, which helps an emergent reader to guess
the print. This accommodates shared reading as
the children will able to identify the repetitive
text, predict the words by identifying the images
and colours.
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Plan

I would begin my plan by introducing the book

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You
See?(this can be done for a few days too). I
would read out the title to my small group by
pointing each word with my index finger, and
then show the illustrations and talk about the
characters in it. Then, I would read out the story
by supporting the children to predict the text
with the help of the colours and the images.

Activity Plan

After having read the story with the children, I would

carry out the Pocket Chart Activity
Materials Required:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? story
book by Bill Martin.
Chart paper
Phonics flashcards- b- bear, bird, d- duck, f- frog,
fish, h-horse, c-cat
Sentence strips
Characters prints
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Procedure

I would have the following strips of sentences

written. They are
1. Brown bear, brown bear (written in brown
colour)
2. What do you see?
3. I see a red bird (written in red)
4. I see a yellow duck (written in yellow)
5. I see a green frog (written in green), and so on.
6. I would also place the cut-outs of brown bear, red
bird, yellow duck, green frog, and others.
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Procedure (Continued)

As we re-read the story from the book, I would kick start

the activity by placing a brown bear image in the first
pocket and ask the children to identify the character.
When they say its a bear or brown bear, I would show
them the flashcard b- bear. Then, I would ask them to
pick the appropriate sentence, which would be brown in
colour and place in the same pocket.

In the next line, the pocket would contain a red bird image.
By guessing the image and referring the flashcard b- bird,
the child will pick the red sentence, I see a red bird.
Then, follows the yellow duck in the third pocket, and so
on.
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Procedure (Continued)

Procedure (Continued)

Closure

After framing all the

sentences, I, along with
the children try to read
the story with the chart
prepared by the children
pointing to the images,
as well as, the words.

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 My view:
Though, the children may actually not be able to
read the text on their own, this method (with
pictures and the colours) would help them to
identify and predict the story. The children
would also feel that they have read a book by
themselves and that would be taken as an
accomplishment. This would also encourage
literacy skills in young minds.

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Swapna Cherukuri

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