Worksheets February 2026
Welcome back, Educators!
The February edition of Bear Essential News just distributed to Phoenix and Tucson schools, and libraries should have received theirs. We just posted the new standards-based worksheets for this issue to our website.
The statewide 15th Anniversary AZ SciTech Festival has begun, and Bear offers a special 4-page pullout section with upcoming free events great for kids, classroom field trips and families. There are hundreds of exhibitions, tours and presentations all over the state now through April. This special section includes a list of some fun-n-fabulous festival events that encourage your students to explore their STEM interests. The Festival will also have a 2-page section in Bear’s March Edition. For a full listing of Festival fun, visit SciTechInstitute.org/calendar.
Bear Essential News is thrilled to bring readers more adventures of Sunset and Meteor from Fan Fusion Phoenix again! Starting with this issue, we’ll have two pages every month, plus some creative contests for kids are coming up online and in the newspaper. The big event happens June 6–8, and kids can win Fan Fusion passes for their families!
Please encourage your students in grades 2–8 to join our free, literacy award-winning Young Reporters Program—now’s a great time for young people to sharpen their writing and communication skills. Click here for the printable Sign-Up Form.
Young Reporters choose the stories they’d like to cover or you can help make suggestions. Or kids can specialize in covering STEM-based stories as Science Reporters.
You can go online under our Kids tab to print out the YR Sign-up Form and to find more details about this literacy award-winning.
Please call 1-866-NEWS KID if your school or organization would like free presentations on writing or different aspects of reporting!
Enjoy the Lunar New Year!
Stephen B Gin, editor
