Many of us have packed up our classrooms and closed the door on another school year. However, a lot of teachers continue to think about teaching and learning over the summer. We like to consider new ideas for the coming school year. So, here is one of my very BEST ideas which my students enjoyed for 23 years....
It's very simple, really. You buy Corduroy bear ( available on Amazon) and the book, Corduroy, by Don Freeman. You make a drawstring bag out of a pillow slip, perhaps. You put the bear and a simple spiral notebook in the bag, leaving the book, Corduroy, out of it for now.
You read the book to your class. If you don't know the story, it is about a teddy bear named Corduroy who is purchased by a little girl who doesn't mind that he is missing a button from his overalls. Corduroy is one of those classic stories of childhood that should be shared with all five and six year olds!
After you read the book to your class, you show them the drawstring bag and reveal the teddy bear and his notebook. You explain how each of them will have a turn to take the bag home for a night and draw/write about their adventures.
I always use the first page in the notebook to share Corduroy's adventures at my house. His adventures are always the same: he gets tossed into my washing machine and tumbled around in my dryer before starting on his sleepovers at students' homes. At least, he starts off each year's visits being nice and clean! And, in case you are wondering, he has held up very well over 23 years of sleepovers at over 300 homes! ***
For many years, I did the Corduroy project at the beginning of the school year, as a way to learn about one another's families. Parents were asked to write the adventures. When Writer's Workshop became part of our kindergarten curriculum, I moved Corduroy to the end of the year so the children could do the drawing/writing themselves. Here are a couple of great examples from this year's notebook:
Before you pass the book bag to the first child to take it home, be sure to pop the book, Corduroy, into the bag. Over the years, I collected several other books about Corduroy which also went home in the book bag.
Of course, there are other stuffed animals and books that could be sent home in cloth bags. I'd love to know if you have your own favorites!
*** Readers of this blog might recall that I raffled off Corduroy at my BIG retirement party. Actually, I raffled off TWO Corduroys: years ago, we had a.m. and p.m. kindergarten, so I have always had two book bags. The lucky winners were delighted! In the "fair and square" raffle, one of the winners was a little girl in my current class. She was just bursting with pleasure at winning! The other was a boy who will be off to college in the fall. He is planning to major in television and film production and loved my idea of featuring Corduroy in one of his films!
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