Teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Corduroy will love this post. It includes tons of helpful information like the book summary, it’s reading level, , recommendations for related resources, suggestions for what skills to use the book to teach, and more.
With a theme of friendship, this Corduroy picture book by Don Freeman is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. This classic read aloud will be a big hit with your students too!
Corduroy is a bear that lives in the toy department of a store. Each day, he hopes that someone is going to take him home. One day, a little girl stops by to look at Corduroy. While she wanted to take the bear home, her mother said she had already spent too much money in the store. She also said Corduroy did not look new because he was missing a button.
That night once all the shoppers have left the store, Corduroy goes out in search of his missing button. He takes the escalator upstairs, thinking it is a mountain and he has always wanted to climb a mountain. He makes his way into a room full of chairs, sofas, lamps and mattresses. When Corduroy is climbing on one of the mattresses he finds a button. He pulls and pulls until the button snaps off and sends him flying. That alerts the watchman who finds Corduroy and brings him back to the toy shelf.
The next morning, Corduroy wakes to find the little girl from the day before. She had returned to the store with money from her piggy bank to take Corduroy home. She brings him to her room where she has a little bed set up for him, right next to hers. Lisa replaces Corduroy’s button and he realizes she is a friend. Something both of them had always wanted.
