Stop To Think Reading; Great White Bear - Primary Concepts

Stop to Think Reading
The Great White Bear
Genre: Informational Text—Science
Stop to Think
STOP
STOP
Question
STOP
Wonder
STOP
React
Relate
STOP
Imagine
STOP
Reflect
Primary Concepts ®

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The Great White Bear
It is winter in the Arctic. Wind howls. Snow swirls. Ice
covers the sea. 2 Most animals would not survive for
an hour so close to the North Pole. 3 But one animal is
born to live here. This is the polar bear.
Keeping Warm
1
1
Predict Read the title and look
at the picture. Look ahead to
find and read the subheads.
What do you think the text is
going to be about?
2
Visualize Can you make a
picture in your mind of the
Arctic? What do you see, hear,
and feel?
How do polar bears survive in the Arctic? You can
see that they have a coat of white fur. This fur is
waterproof. 4 It can get wet and it will stay dry.
3
Relate to Self Would you be
able to survive in the Arctic?
How?
Under the fur is black skin. Sun goes through the
fur. It heats up the skin. Below the skin is a thick layer
4
Monitor Meaning Do you
know what the word waterproof
means? Read ahead to see if you
can find out.
Stop to Think Reading
©Primary Concepts

of fat. The fat is called blubber. The fur, the skin, and
the blubber all keep the bears warm, even in the
freezing cold. 5
When baby polar bears are born, they are no
bigger than a man’s shoe. 6 They are too small to
live in the cold. How do they keep warm? Before
they are born, the mother digs a den in the ice. The
den is just big enough for the mother and her cubs.
The cubs stay in the den until spring. By that time,
they are the size of dogs. They come out of the dark
den for the first time. Now they can see the bright
white world they must learn to live in. 7
Too Warm?
The biggest danger for polar bears is not the cold. 8
The biggest danger is that their world is getting warmer.
Each year, more ice melts. The bears have less
space to live. Winter is the time polar bears hunt for
food. If winters get shorter, polar bears will not be able
to find as much to eat.
Polar bears know how to stay warm in the cold.
Can polar bears survive if their world gets warmer? 9
5
Summarize What are the ways
polar bears stay warm?
Identify New Information What
did you already know about how
polar bears keep warm? What
have you learned?
Compare and Contrast How are
you like and different from a
polar bear in the way you keep
warm?
6
Visualize Show with your hands
about how big you think a baby
polar bear is.
7
Compare and Contrast How is
the polar bears’ world different
outside the den?
Visualize Picture what it would
be like to come out of the den
for the first time. What would
you see? How would you feel?
8
Predict What are you wondering
about as you read this sentence?
What do you think the biggest
danger to polar bears could be?
9
Make Judgments What do you
think the answer to this question
might be?
Think Back Did you correctly
predict what the reading passage
was about?
Stop to Think Reading
©Primary Concepts

Before the Reading
Show students the Arctic and the North Pole on a globe. Explain to students that today’s
reading passage will be about the Arctic.
During the Reading
Stop at the stop signs
STOP
and invite children to tell about what they are thinking.
Introduce vocabulary words as necessary.
Arctic the frozen area around the North Pole
blubber the fat under the skin of an animal such as a whale or a seal
den the home of a wild animal such as a lion or a fox
howl to make a loud noise like a dog or a wolf
North Pole the most northern point on the earth
swirl to move in circles
waterproof something that is waterproof keeps water out
After the Reading
Talk about the reading. Use questions like these to spark discussion.
• If you visited the Arctic, would it be easy to spot polar bear cubs? Why or why not?
• If the Arctic gets warmer, do you think more or fewer polar bears will survive? Why?
Follow-Up Activity: Have students make a drawing on a piece of paper folded in half. On
one side, have them draw a picture of the polar bears’ world today. On the other side, have
them draw a picture of the polar bears’ world in the future if global warming continues.
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Stop to Think Reading
©Primary Concepts

The Great White Bear
STOP
It is winter in the Arctic. Wind howls. Snow swirls. Ice
covers the sea.
an hour so close to the North Pole.
Most animals would not survive for
But one animal is
born to live here. This is the polar bear.
Keeping Warm
How do polar bears survive in the Arctic? You can
see that they have a coat of white fur. This fur is
waterproof.
STOP
STOP
It can get wet and it will stay dry.
Under the fur is black skin. Sun goes through the
fur. It heats up the skin. Below the skin is a thick layer
STOP
Stop to Think Reading
©Primary Concepts

of fat. The fat is called blubber. The fur, the skin, and
the blubber all keep the bears warm, even in the
freezing cold.
STOP
When baby polar bears are born, they are no
bigger than a man’s shoe.
They are too small to
live in the cold. How do they keep warm? Before
they are born, the mother digs a den in the ice. The
den is just big enough for the mother and her cubs.
The cubs stay in the den until spring. By that time,
they are the size of dogs. They come out of the dark
den for the first time. Now they can see the bright
white world they must learn to live in.
Too Warm?
The biggest danger for polar bears is not the cold.
The biggest danger is that their world is getting warmer.
Each year, more ice melts. The bears have less
space to live. Winter is the time polar bears hunt for
food. If winters get shorter, polar bears will not be able
to find as much to eat.
Polar bears know how to stay warm in the cold.
Can polar bears survive if their world gets warmer?
STOP
STOP
STOP
STOP
Stop to Think Reading
©Primary Concepts