Teddy Bears~ Class 2

In class 2 we have been looking at old and new teddy bears and comparing them. We have been finding out about the history of  teddy bears and we have been doing some detailed drawings.

We found out that Margarete Steiff made the very first teddy bears. She enjoyed sewing and used leftover bits of fabric to make stuffed toys. She made elephants, bears, dogs and donkeys.

 

She started making toy animals that had moving joints and one day an American came along and ordered 3000 of Margarete's new toys.

 

 



Everyone loved the Steiff bears. You can still buy them today and they have a special button in one ear so people know they have been made by the Steiff company.

 

 

So why are toy bears called teddy bears?

 

When Theodore Roosevelt was the President of the United States of America he enjoyed hunting bears with his friends. The presidents friends called him Teddy which is short for Theodore.

One day he was out hunting and hadn't managed to shoot anything. His friends didn't want him to go home without getting a bear so they chased a black bear and tied it to a tree so it couldn't get away and went to find the president. What do you think happened next?

When the president saw the bear he refused to shoot it and made his friends let it go. After that, because the president had saved the bear, toy bears in America were called Teddy's Bear-or Teddy Bear for short....

 

....and that's how the teddy bear got it's name!



We hope you enjoyed looking at our Teddy Bears!