If you have been a member of The Core Coaches community for awhile now, then you know how much we LOVE read alouds! And, if you are new to our educator community, Welcome!
Interactive read alouds were one of the first resources we offered in our Teachers Pay Teachers store. Originally, these read alouds were primarily for first and second grade readers. However, now we also provide read alouds specifically for kindergarten and preschool kids.
Today, we are going to share the ins and outs of our read alouds through the wonderful book The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland. Get ready, The Very Cranky Bear activities we have to share with you will leave you anything BUT Cranky!
Pre K Read Aloud
All of our Pre K read alouds follow the same proven format that we have used for years in our first and second grade read alouds. Moreover, this format was not just created to share with others – we first saw results with it in our own classrooms!
One of the things that makes our read aloud format so effective is that it follows the same consistent structure, regardless of which book you are reading. Therefore, the more frequently you use this format the more familiar students will become with it. Which means they can focus their brain power on the specific text at hand without worrying about trying to understand how they will demonstrate their understanding.
Here is a brief overview of what you will find in our read aloud resources for preschoolers:
- Detailed lesson plans
- Comprehension questions
- Whole group response to text activities
- Response to text worksheets
- Writing pages
- Vocabulary cards and worksheets
- Quiz
- Retelling Puppets
- Craftivity template
As you can see, these resources are full of several different learning activities. Each read aloud has so many activities that you will have enough for anywhere from three to five reading lessons! That’s enough to support you in exploring one picture book for a whole week (or even two weeks depending on how often you see your students).
Let’s dive deeper into how you can use these read alouds over the course of several days by looking at our preschool read aloud for The Very Cranky Bear.
The Very Cranky Bear Read Aloud
The main element of all of our read alouds are the comprehension questions. Let’s take a look at the types of questions your students will explore by looking at the comprehension questions for The Very Cranky Bear.
The Very Cranky Bear Comprehension Questions
The comprehension questions for The Very Cranky Bear (and for all of our read alouds) are distributed over the course of three days. Each day the questions focus on a different element of reading comprehension.
Day 1 Comprehension Questions for the Very Cranky Bear
The comprehension questions for the first day of this read aloud are divided into three sections: before reading, story sequencing, and story elements. These are the same three focus areas that we use to create comprehension questions for all of our read alouds.
Here are some examples of these types of questions, as seen in The Very Cranky Bear Pre K Read Aloud:
- What is the title of this story?
- Does the title give us any clues about what the story is about?
- What happens at the beginning of the story?
- How does each animal try to cheer up bear?
- Who is the main character?
- Why is bear upset?
Day 2 Comprehension Questions for the Very Cranky Bear
On day 2 of reading, students return to the text to dive deeper into the elements of craft and structure, vocabulary, and character development.
Here are some examples of these types of questions:
- Why does the author use different sizes of print?
- How do you think the cranky bear would say, “ALL I REALLY WANT, IS A PLACE TO SLEEP!”
- What does cranky mean?
- What does wool mean? How do the words and illustrations help us know?
- How are the animals feeling?
- Who makes Bear happy? How?
Day 3 The Very Cranky Bear Comprehension Questions
Day three is all about exploring comprehension through the lens of words and illustrations, as well as text connections. Take a look at some of these types of questions as demonstrated in our Pre K read aloud for The Very Cranky Bear.
- What do the illustrations tell us about the setting?
- How do the words and pictures work together to tell you more about the part where Bear is still cranky?
- Have you ever been woken up when you weren’t ready to wake up?
- Share a time something made you cranky.
These are just some of the questions included in the PreK read aloud for The Very Cranky Bear. Moreover, these are examples of the same types of questions you will have access to in any of our read alouds.
The Very Cranky Bear Printables
While you can present these questions to your students as whole class call and response, we know that young learners often need a bit more engagement. Therefore, we have incorporated these questions into hands-on learning activities.
Inside of The Very Cranky Bear read aloud you will find a story map activity, a sequencing activity, and a Who? What? matching activity. In addition, there is a cheer sort, character close up, and feelings match.
We know that while digital learning has an important role in education, many teachers and students still appreciate and enjoy the tactile learning experience of paper. Which is why all of these reading activities can be printed.
Along with the printables for this read aloud you will also have access to a digital version of the activities. This provides you with plenty of choices in how you use this read aloud activity in your classroom.
The Very Cranky Bear Craft Activities
While the questions and activities provided above will be plenty for three days of learning, the fun doesn’t have to stop on day three. Each read aloud also includes several additional learning activities.
These activities can be used to extend the read aloud for a fourth or fifth day. In addition, they can also be paired with any of the reading comprehension questions on days 1-3 to extend the reading lesson. You choose what works best for you and your classroom!
Here is what is included in the additional learning activities for The Very Cranky Bear picture book, including a craft!
The Very Cranky Bear Quiz
Writing Activity for The Very Cranky Bear
Vocabulary for The Very Cranky Bear
The Very Cranky Bear Retelling Puppets
Craft Template for The Very Cranky Bear
Read Aloud Books for Preschoolers
At the beginning of this post we mentioned that all of our read alouds follow the same format. This again is intended to support students in becoming familiar with the same types of learning activities so they can focus on the specific text at hand, rather than trying to figure out how to do the assignment.
If you find that your students respond well to the format we have provided, then we have dozens of other read alouds for preschoolers that you may enjoy. Below are some of our favorite read aloud books to teach in preschool.
Want more? Check out our full library of Preschool read alouds here on our website!
