Maggie’s
Activity Pack
Name __________________________
Date ___________________________
Observing Brown Bears
Each year hundreds of brown bears come out of their winter dens to
find food at Brooks Falls in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. They fatten up
for another year. They fish for calorie-rich salmon. Some bears teeter on
the edge of the falls. They snatch salmon as they leap. Other bears sit at
the base of the falls. They grab fish. Hundreds of bears come and go from
this area in July. They devour fish and help to continue the food chain.
Many large male bears stand in their favorite spots at the falls.
Female bears, especially those with cubs, can be seen in the lower river
area. They do not want to take the chance of angering a huge male bear.
Often you can see those mother bears and cubs sleeping along the river.
Seagulls fly over the falls and river, often swimming close to the bears.
Brown bears need lots of salmon to fatten them up for the long winter.
As fall arrives, the brown bears try to stay fat. They move slowly to save
their energy for digging a winter den. Their long claws help them to this
along with being good tools for eating salmon.
Park rangers help people understand the bears. They participate in
Internet chats. People around the world get to know the bears. There is a
guidebook so people will know each bear’s number and name. We learn
that while bears have specific needs, there are personality differences.
Watch an animal cam to learn more.
© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2015. www.missmaggie.org Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.
Use the text to answer these questions.
1. Where is Brooks Falls?
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2. What two things do a bear’s long claws help it do?
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3. What could be one personality difference between bears? Use a fact
from the text to support your answer.
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4. How do you think eating salmon may help other animals in the food
chain? Use a sentence from the text to support your answer.
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© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2015. www.missmaggie.org Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.
Dear Colleague,
As we travel around and visit schools, we hear about the need for informational
text that allows children to annotate and underline sections that prove their responses to
text dependent questions (TDQ) are correct. That’s why our weekly packs are perfect
for this kind of activity. Whether you copy enough for the whole class, a select literacy
group, or project on your SmartBoard, we support your efforts to use close reading and
TDQ. You may want to ask children to use the information in this activity to write a
fictional tale of bears as they fatten up for the long winter. This is valuable as it can
reveal to them how authors use facts even in a fictional piece.
As we have discussed before, TDQ should come from all levels of
comprehension. We can even ask children what a text inspires them to do, as
discussed by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey in TDQ: Pathways to Close and Critical
Reading. Your students may be inspired to log on to Explore.org and view the bears at
Katmai. This is a favorite activity of Dr. Kathy! They may be inspired to learn more about
brown bears and how they can be protected.
As part of choosing a text for close reading, we know it should contain
vocabulary that is worthy for children to study. Go beyond merely asking children to
define words from a text. Ask them to act out what teeter means. Have them show you
a glimpse. Encourage them to draw a picture of a bear devouring a salmon. These are
all valuable ways to get children interested in new words. In the past we frontloaded
vocabulary by telling children what new words meant. Only a small portion of words can
be taught this way. We need to give children the opportunity to use context clues or
even look up new vocabulary. This is the way we can increase a child’s understanding
of new words.
Happy teaching,
Dr. Kathy
Answer Key:
Suggested responses 1. Brooks Falls is in Katmai National Park in Alaska.
2. A bear’s claws help it to catch salmon and dig a winter den.
3. Some bears like to stand at the top of the falls to catch salmon in their mouth while
other bears like to grab salmon with their claws while standing in the river.
4. The text mentioned the seagulls overhead. They are likely a part of the food chain as
they eat the leftover parts of the salmon that a bear leaves.
Goals:
Students read an informational text about brown bears. They answer 5 text dependent
questions from the three levels of comprehension. Ideas for adding creative vocabulary
questions are discussed in the Dear Colleague letter. This activity is available on the
primary and intermediate levels. A companion emergent reader activity is also available.
It aligns with the Key Ideas and Details of the ELA Common Core and with “From
Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes” of the Next Generation Science
Standards.
© Maggie's Earth Adventures, LLC 2015. www.missmaggie.org Teachers may reproduce for classroom use.