Submitted by: Linn McDonald, an art educator at Oakland School in Bloomington, Illinois.

Objectives:

First grade students will contribute to an online book (found at http://www.district87.org/oakland/brownbear) adapted from the children's book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, written by Bill Martin, Jr., and illustrated by Eric Carle.

What You Need:

• paper
• drawing materials
• "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Eric Carle

What You Do:

Number of collaborating classroom accepted: unlimited

1. First grade classrooms will read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, written by Bill Martin, Jr., and illustrated by Eric Carle.

2. Each student will complete the sentence "I see a ____________ looking at me." This sentence style follows the format of the book. Students fill-in the blank with a person, place, or thing that is representative of their geographic region. An example for the midwestern part of the United States would be "I see a tractor looking at me."

3. In art class, students will review what the role of an illustrator is, and view illustrations by Eric Carle. Students will then create an illustration of their sentence.

4. Each participating class will choose a favorite sentence and illustration, and submit this to the project contact person (Linn McDonald - mcdonaldl@district87.org) to publish as a collaborative "virtual class picture book"¨ on our school web site. Schools will also send a short geographic description of their region. First grade classrooms can also compile student sentences and illustrations to create individual class picture books.

5. First grade classrooms will mark other project participants on a world map in their classroom.

6. Directions for joining the project: Project directions may be found on our website: http://www.district87.org/oakland/brownbear; Timeline of the project: September 1, 2001 to April 30, 2002

More Information:

Recommended Books:

Biography: