Article
Daisy Gilardini (Polar Bear); Daniel J. Cox/Minden Pictures (Polar Bear Family); Jim McMahon/Mapman® (Globe)
Picture This,

Bear Bottom

From the December 2025/January 2026 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will analyze text and pictures to learn about a fun way polar bear moms help their cubs.

Lexiles: 340L
Featured Skill: Key Details,
Topic: Science,

Standards

Magazine View
See Student View

Polar bear moms take good care of their cubs.

Did this polar bear sit on something? No! That’s her cub. 

The mom was going into deep snow. The cub jumped up to get a ride on Mom’s bottom. The cub held on to Mom’s fur with its claws and teeth. 

Polar bear cubs grow up fast. By 2 years old, this cub may be as big as its mom. It will not get a ride then!

Polar bears live in the Arctic.


video (1)
Activities (3)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
video (1)
Activities (3) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)

About the Article

English Language Arts Focus

Nonfiction Text Features: Photographs & Labels

Science Focus

Animal traits

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Whole group
  • Small group

Pairings and Text Connections

  • From the Storyworks 1 archive: “Big Read-Aloud: Bear Cub Rescue” (May/June 2025)
  • Suggested books: Polar Babies by Susan Ring; National Geographic Kids Readers: Polar Bears by Laura Marsh

Suggested Reading Focus

Getting information from text and images/labels (20 minutes)

  • Ask students what they know about polar bears. Where do they live? What do they look like? Have students ever seen them before? Say that they will be learning about polar bear moms and their babies.
  • Have students take a close look at the photo of the polar bears. Ask children to share what they notice about it. What is surprising? What do they think is happening in the photo? Why?
  • Read the mini article. Then have children put a finger on the caption below the map. Read the caption aloud. Do the same with the caption at the end of the mini article. Then watch the embedded video to deepen students’ understanding of the text.
  • Finally, have children turn and talk to a partner to tell something they learned from the text and something they learned from the pictures.

After-Reading Skills Practice

Skills: editing sentences; getting information; labeling (15 minutes)

Text-to-Speech