North Babylon students at Woods Road Elementary School learned the origin and history of teddy bears and how to draw their own bears when author and illustrator Kathleen Bart recently visited the school to present a program called “A Tale of Two Teddies: The History of the Teddy Bear" to kick off their two-week Parents as Reading Partners (PARP) program.
During this PARP program, Bart discussed how the teddy bear originated, as detailed in her book “A Tale of Two Teddies.” She noted that there were in fact two different kinds of teddy bears created over 100 years ago – one in Brooklyn, N.Y. and the other in Germany – and explained how the American bear was named after President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.
At the end of the program and after a quick tutorial from Bart, the students had the opportunity to create their own teddy bear designs. Bart also donated copies of her story “A Tale of Two Teddies, The First Teddy Bears Tell their True Stories,” to each classroom’s individual library.
PARP features two weeks of activities, both in school and at home, designed to encourage parents or other family members to become active reading partners with their child or family member.
The theme for this year’s Woods Road PARP is “The Reading Express.”
