Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Very Cranky Bear will love this post. It includes tons of helpful information for teachers like the book’s summary, reading strategies it best lends itself to teaching, resource recommendations, and much more.
With a theme of feelings, this The Very Cranky Bear picture book by Nick Bland is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. You and your students will love it too!
Engage Your Students with The Very Cranky Bear Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Very Cranky Bear.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with The Very Cranky Bear reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE VERY CRANKY BEAR SUMMARY
It was a cold and rainy day and Zebra, Lion, Moose and Sheep found their way into a cave to play a game of cards. Each friend had something special about them: Zebra had stripes, Lion had a mane, Moose had antlers but Sheep was plain.
Suddenly, the friends realized they were not alone in the cave. They heard a loud ROAR and a bear chased them out of the cave. The friends concluded that the bear must be feeling cranky. The friends decided they would try and cheer him up. Zebra made stripes, Lion created a mane, and Moose made antlers for bear. The three brought their creations into Bear while sheep waited in the cold.
Again, the friends were chased out of the cave by the cranky bear. The friends were confused about why Bear was still cranky. Bear turned to Sheep and said he wanted a quiet place to sleep. Sheep decided to cut off some of her wool to make Bear a pillow. This allowed him to fall asleep and the four friends were able to resume their game inside the cave.
This rhyming book is a great story about friendship and feelings.
THE VERY CRANKY BEAR LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for The Very Cranky Bear, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based The Very Cranky Bear reading comprehension questions focus on:
- summarize / retell
- plot | problem – solution
- identifying genre
- sequencing
- rhyme | rhythm | repetition
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- feelings
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- plural nouns
- adjectives
- prepositions
- homophones
THE VERY CRANKY BEAR ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for The Very Cranky Bear?
- Lexile® Measure: AD510L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 20 – 24
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.7
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Nick Bland. It was illustrated by Michael Croland.
What genre is The Very Cranky Bear?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 32 pages long.
