My author study lasts between one week and four weeks depending on how many books and activities I have to with with the author. If I have a class that is really enjoying an author, we may spend more time on it than a class that is not that into it.
This week, we are celebrating the works of Bill Martin Jr. I have had the pleasure of meeting several great authors. I always ask them if I can take a picture with them because this helps my kiddos understand that books were written by REAL people. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet Bill Martin Jr. He worked with John Archambault on several of his books so I use this week to share a picture of me with John Archambault. It is as good as I can get! 
We do some fun activities this week. Of course we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We make a story bracelet. This is SUPER easy and the kids just love it! We read the story then I pass out pipe cleaners. We go through the story again and I give the kids a bead for each character. We use a larger bead for brown bear because this is also the title of the book. We use a heart for the teacher because their teacher loves them all. We use stars for the children because they are all stars. After the beads are on, we just twist them into a bracelet that is loose enough to be pulled on and off. Kids seriously wear these for weeks! 
OF COURSE we do the Brown Bear Watch, Think, Color Bundle! This set has nine games - one for each character. These games are designed for number sense to 120. This is perfect for the beginning of the year! After my kiddos have done all of these games, most of them are ready to move on to another skill in WTC games. I use this set to get the kids accustomed to the games and they become VERY familiar with the patterns on the hundreds chart and how to locate numbers to 120. These games are also nice for the beginning of the year because there are not many colors used in each design. This is the perfect way to train them to play Watch, Think, Color. We use the finished pictures to make books for each student.
We also make a "First Grader, First Grader, Who Do You See?" class book. This is great for sight words and predictable text. The kids just write their names and the name of a classmate. I have to tell them who to write to make sure that the pages will flow in order. I use their number order to make this easy. (Do you number your kids? This makes SO many things easy!) To do the pages, I have the student who is number 1 write the name of number 2. Number 2 writes number 3's name and so on. The last student writes Mrs. Morrison. I make a page and write "First Graders". I add a class picture with all their names as the last page in the book. I laminate the pages and bind them. My kids take turns taking the books home to share with their families. This book will be sent in a tote with "Brown Bear" and some activities. Once all the kids have had a turn taking the book home, it goes in our library. Click here to download the pages used to make this book!
Thanks for reading! Hope you have a happy week!
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