Well of course, when you are learning all about play and toys and things, you have to read lots of stories about play and toys and things. And lurking on a dusty bookshelf at home are lots of stories about play and toys and things. Amongst them is a story that was written quite a long time ago. It is a story about a bear called Corduroy. And here he is, with his green dungarees. Meet Corduroy.
If you haven’t read the story, I won’t spoil it for you, except to say that Corduroy, who lived in a department store, ended up being bought by a little girl named Lisa. In spite of the fact that his green dungarees were somewhat lacking in the button department!
Oddly enough, lurking in amongst the books in the classroom, was another story about Corduroy. Some of us have even read it.
But the classroom Corduroy looked somehow different from the Corduroy of the dusty bookshelf book.
Melchior noticed that the first Corduroy was dark brown and the second light brown.
Tanisha spotted a purple patch on the classroom Corduroy.
Anusha saw that the second Corduroy had found his button (but then of course she remembered the bit of the story where Lisa sewed one on for him).
When we looked even more closely, we saw that the first Corduroy had rough fur but that the second one had smooth fur. His face seemed rounder too.
Well, those differences got us thinking. Lots of us have teddies living at our house. I do, don’t I!
Here he is again. That Very Important Bear. All 14 cubes tall of him.
I am not sure how old he is, but he has lived at my house for about 6 years now. And he lived somewhere else before he came to live with me, having been rescued, as he was, from the 50p bin in an Oxfordshire charity shop…..(a story for another day perhaps!) Maybe he is about ten years old. Maybe a bit more.
Here is another bear who lives at my house.
He is much older than Very Important Bear. He was found beneath the Christmas tree of my first ever Christmas.
Together we looked closely at these two bears; really old bear and (quite old but still) Very Important Bear. And here are some of the things we noticed.
Really old bear is showing signs of wear and tear (a little like his owner) with thinning fur, a crooked smile and a bit of a hole at the back of his head.
Talking of which, when she looked closely into the hole, Ella spotted that the stuffing was bits of wood; wood shavings. That made him feel quite hard to Tanisha when she prodded him. He also has arms and legs (limbs) that go right round in a circle (rotate).
Inside his tummy, he has something hard, which is the mechanism that at one time meant he could growl. Grrr.
His nose is made from something hard that has been glued into place and his eyes have been sewn on with thread.
And I am rather sad to say that Yousouf thinks he looks ugly. Poor old bear.
I wonder how (quite old but still) Very Important Bear will fare under such close scrutiny.
His fur is a bit matted (which means clumped together) rather than smooth and glossy. Maybe he should change his shampoo…..
He had to have an operation only the other day, after a tangle with a spiral staircase (he was very brave) which means that even though he doesn’t have a bit of a hole in the back of his head like very old bear, I can tell you with confidence that inside he has white fluff (a little like cotton wool) as well as some beads in a bag that help him to sit up. Definitely no wood shavings though, so that when Tanisha did the poke test, he felt soft and squidgy.
Unlike really old bear, his limbs aren’t jointed; they only rotate so far. Ouch! His nose and eyes are made from fabric, and he has a teeny tiny button-like tail.
And whatever anyone else might think, I think he is a very handsome (and Very Important) Bear.
What about you; do you have any quite old or really old bears that live at your house? Look closely at them. How are they like very old bear and (quite old but still) Very Important Bear? And how are they different? Do you think they might like to come and visit us at school so we can look closely at them too? We have cookies!
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