Polar Bear

by Dee Phillips

It's a spring morning in the Arctic. A hungry female polar bear emerges from her den after a winter spent sleeping under the snow. Her two young cubs follow her into their icy new world. The tiny bears have lots to learn. When they get to the ocean, their mother will show them how to swim and hunt for food. Filled with information perfectly suited to the abilities and interests of its primary-grade audience, this colorful, fact-filled book gives readers a chance not only to learn all about polar bears and how their bodies are adapted to the extreme cold, but also to develop their powers of observation and critical thinking. Built-in activities such as investigating and measuring the size of a polar bear's paw will give readers a chance to gain, insights beyond the facts and figures.

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Katie]

Camp, D. (2000). It takes two: Teaching with twin texts of fact and fiction. Reading Teacher, 53(5), 400-408.

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2006). Understanding the demands of nonfiction texts. Teaching for comprehending and fluency: Thinking, talking, and writing about reading, K-8 (185 - 187). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Heder, T. (2015). The bear report. New York, NY: Abrams.

I chose to select The Bear Report by Thyra Heder for my twin text for my nonfiction book Polar Bear by Dee Phillips because it is a great book for students to learn more about polar bears and their homes in a fun and adventures way. Polar Bear is a great nonfiction book that will educate students on the facts of polar bears. The Bear Report will help students take the facts they learned about polar bears and put them in a context that will help them better understand the content.

Text Structure
-Description
-Problem and solution
-Question and answer
-Combination

Text Features
-Titles
-Table of contents
-Index
-Glossary
-Special font
-Captions
-Illustrations/photos
-Maps

I would love to use webbing for the text set The Bear Report and Polar Bear. This strategy would help student connects central topics from both books. This strategy can be used before, during, or after reading with both fiction and nonfiction books. Before reading students brainstorm ideas about polar bears; what they look like, what they eat, where they live, etc. These ideas are recorded on a line coming out from the central topic (polar bears). During reading students can add to the web. After reading students may add any additional learning’s.

[Brittany]

Young readers can learn a wide variety of information by reading Polar Bear by Dee Phillips. The book includes a table of contents, glossary, and index. Children will have a chance to look at maps, labels, headings, captions, and bold words. This book goes along with a first-grade unit on arctic animals.
The fiction twin text for this book is Ida, Always by Caron Levis. This book is about two polar bears who live in a zoo and are friends. It narrates what their days look like and the bears’ perspectives on the world. This would also be a great story to use for lessons on friendship and loss. After reading this story, I want students to begin work on a K-W-L chart (Camp, 2010). After filling in the first two categories, read the nonfiction book and complete the chart. Students will then create a story, fiction or nonfiction, based on the information they filled into the final column of their chart to reflect learning.
References
Camp, D. (2010). It takes two: Teaching with twin texts of fact and fiction. The Reading
Teacher, 53(5), 400-408.
Levis, C. (2016). Ida, always. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

[Helen]

This is a very informative book about polar bears! It has large pictures, a map, questions about the text, a glossary, and a science project to do! Recommended for all ages to learn about these bears!