Overview
The children will follow bear tracks to find a snack and then read and write words that end with -ack, such as track, sack, snack, pack, and tack. 

Literacy Activities
Follow the track to find a snack

• Hang up the Shack sign where the activity will begin.
• Print and cut out a few sheets of the bear tracks graphics, tape a word card to the back of six of the bear tracks, and make a trail of tracks around the room.
  • Note: not all of the tracks should have word cards on the back. 
• At the end of the tracks, place a backpack or paper sack containing a snack that cracks, a toy bear or bear graphic, and A Note for Bear's Sack.
• Write the Follow the Bear Tracks chant on the classroom whiteboard.
• Invite the children to sit by the Shack sign and teach them the Follow the Bear Tracks chant.
• Tell the children that they will look for bear tracks to find a pack (or sack) with a snack belonging to a bear named Jack who lives in the shack.
• Have the children take turns selecting a track to see if there is an -ack word on the back.
  • If the track does not have a word card on the back, have the child set it aside.
  • If the track does have a word card on the back, have the children say "This track has a word on the back!"
• Have the child read the word and then tape it on the whiteboard, filling in the blank in the Follow the Bear Tracks chant. Then have everyone repeat the chant with the new word.
• Let the children continue taking turns selecting tracks until all of the tracks have been examined. 
• When everyone arrives at the end of the tracks, read A Note for Bear's Sack to the children.
• Give each of the children a few snacks out of the sack and have the children say the -ack sound each time they crack and eat a snack. 
• Tell the children to follow the tracks back to the Shack sign.

More Practice
Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds 

• Have the children make different words from word-building cards by changing either the consonants or the vowel. 
  • Change the beginning consonant(s): sack → jack; rack → tack; track → snack 
  • Change the vowel: sack → sock; pack → peck; track → truck
  • Change the ending consonant(s): jack → jar; sack → sat; track → trap 

Read target words in a text 

• Have the children refer back to the whiteboard to find the words that end in -ack in the Follow the Bear Track chant. 
  • Let the children take turns circling the -ack ending each time it appears in the chant.
• Read the chant with the children, using as many verses as desired.
   

Write about the activity using target words and phrases

• Display the word words on a word wall and engage the children in filling in the missing words in the following sentences: 
  • We followed bear ___(tracks).   
  • On the way, we found pictures of a   ___,  ___, and ___ (rack, snack, tack, jack, sack).
  • We packed the things in a ___(sack or backpack).   
  • At the end of the ___ (tracks), we got a ___ (snack).
  • It was a snack that we got to ___(crack).
  • We followed the ___(tracks) back to a ___ (shack).