Bear Snores On Printable Bracelets for Teaching Beginning-Middle-End

Inside: Teach beginning, middle, & end with these free Bear Snores On printable bracelets.

Collage of images from the post

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Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (ad) is a terrific book to include in your winter animals or hibernation unit. It also turns out to be an excellent narrative for story sequencing (as are these other books that are great for story sequencing).

In this whimsical story, Bear is sleeping through the winter when one animal after another shows up in his bear cave. They warm themselves, serve snacks, and make lots of noise, but “Bear snores on.” Finally, a bit of pepper makes Bear sneeze and wake up.

There’s a distinct order to the story, and so I made up a Bear Snores On story sequencing hat based on it for my store. It’s basically a more-fun, wearable worksheet. After hearing the story, students can go back through the book and put all the parts in the correct order. Then they glue those onto a crown they can wear home and retell to their families.

A bear snores on hat on a starry paper background with cutout story parts in front of it.

Bear Snores On Bracelets

The structure of this book also lends itself really well to teaching “beginning, middle, and end.” So I decided to create this blog freebie for you too.

It’s a three-part bracelet that I made for you in two ways. You can cut apart the beginning, middle, and end pictures and string them with yarn. (These could also be a necklace if you use a longer bit of string.)

Three part bracelets punched and joined with a yarn.

Just cut the squares apart and hole punch each end. Then weave a length of yarn through each of them in order.

Or, if you want something with the easiest possible prep, there’s also a simpler version. Just cut these strips apart and tape or carefully staple them onto little wrists.

A  hand wearing the bracelet, showing an illustration for the middle part of the story.

Where Does the Beginning turn into the Middle?

One way to explain how to separate out the beginning and middle is like this:

What is the situation when the story first starts? (Bear is sleeping alone in his den.)

What is the first thing that changes that situation? (Mouse arrives)

That is where the middle gets going!

Why Teach Beginning-Middle-End?

Helping children differentiate the beginning, middle, and end of a narrative will help them with several other reading skills.

First, separating out the beginning, middle, and end helps students compare one story to another. For instance, Jan Brett’s The Snowy Nap, (ad) another wonderful hibernation story, begins with a hedgehog who is awake, and ends with him asleep. Compare that to Bear Snores On, which is the opposite, and look at all those little brains click!

Another reason to teach beginning, middle, and end is that it will provide some background when students learn about plot structure later on in elementary school.

Download the Free Printable

Ready for the free beginning-middle-end bracelets to use with Bear Snores On?

To get your very own copy, you can sign up right here:

    I’ll add you to my weekly-ish newsletter too – it’s full of ideas and more free printables. Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.

    Happy Teaching,

    Heather

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