The Velveteen Rabbit

Dear Educator,
We are very excited that you have chosen to include Theatre Bristol’s production of The Velveteen Rabbit in your fall curriculum! This classic story of love and friendship is one we can all relate to. To me, this is a magical story. A story of what a child remembers and loves and believes in. A story of the imagination of the young, the power of the heart, and of that one and very special toy.

As you prepare for your visit, use the suggested activities inside to unlock the magic of this story for your students. We have included a broad base of materials to cover many subject areas and enhance your standard curriculum. I hope you find it helpful. As our partner in education, please feel free to adapt the information and activities to best suit the needs and abilities of your students. You are invited to make copies of this study guide for fellow teachers as well as your students.

We look forward to seeing you at the theatre and hope that you enjoy your time with The Velveteen Rabbit.
Sincerely,

Amy Neal Bussey
Director of Education

Theatre Bristol is a not-for-profit cultural and educational organization whose activities are made possible in part by generous financial support from the National Endowment for the Arts; Tennessee Arts Commission; Virginia Commission for the Arts; Arts Council of Greater Kingsport; Johnson City Area Arts Council; City of Bristol, Tennessee; City of Bristol, Virginia; and corporations, foundations and individuals from throughout our region. Theatre Bristol is a 501 (c) (3) organization and all contributions are tax-deductible.

Attention Tennessee Schools - Tennessee Ticket Subsidy Program
The Tennessee State Legislature and The Tennessee Arts Commission provide a ticket subsidy program. To find our if your school is eligible, call the Arts Council of Greater Kingsport, which serves Hancock, Hawkins & Sullivan Counties, (423) 392-8420. The Johnson City Area Arts Council serves Carter, Greene, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington Counties, (423) 928-8229.

Additional Reading
Corduroy - Don Freeman
Beady Bear - Don Freeman
Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse-Leo Lionni
The Tale of Peter Rabbit-Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Two Bad Mice-Beatrix Potter
Grandma’s House-Elaine Moore
Winter Sleepers-Phyllis Sarasy
Good Dog, Bad Dog -Corinne Gerson
Grandpa and Bo-Kevin Henkes

Teachers:
Book a free in the classroom workshop!
Call Amy at (423) 968-4977 for more information.
Workshops are limited, so please call early.

In-classroom workshops are made possible in part by the generous contributions of the State of Tennessee and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Synopsis of Story
One Christmas day a young boy was given a brown and white spotted velveteen rabbit with pink sateen ears. After a time, the rabbit and boy became inseparable. Fancier toys teased the Velveteen Rabbit because he was only made of velveteen and stuffed with old sawdust. However, his friend, the wise Skin Horse, told him about Nursery Magic that would make him real if he was loved by a child and gave love in return.

As time went on the Velveteen Rabbit’s beautiful fur became shabby, his tail began to come apart and all the pink came off his nose where the boy kissed him. One day the boy told his Nana that the rabbit was real. The rabbit was so happy to be real that he never noticed his appearance. Left outside one night, he told some wild rabbits that he was real, but they also teased him and made him sad.

Later the boy became ill with scarlet fever. The rabbit stayed by his side. When the boy was well, the doctor ordered that all the toys be burned because of germs. The rabbit was carried outside to be burned with the rubbish. Before he could be burned, the Fairy of Nursery Magic appeared. The fairy, who takes all the old, loved and worn out playthings that children no longer need and makes them real. The fairy took him in her arms and flew him to a place in the woods where there were other rabbits. She kissed him and told him to run and play. The Velveteen Rabbit became a real, live rabbit.

About the Author
Margery Williams Bianco was born in London in 1881. She was the daughter of a lawyer and scholar who believed children were better educated without formal schooling. As a result, Williams attended school for only a few years in both America and England, and was home-schooled instead. Her first novel, written for adults, was published when she was only 17 years old. She continued to write adult books until the 1920s.

The Velveteen Rabbit was Williams’ first attempt at writing for children. It has become her most well-known work and a children’s literature classic. Williams said, "Nothing is easier than to write a story for children; few things are harder, as any writer knows, than to achieve a story that children will really like."

About the story she said, "It was by a sort of accident that The Velveteen Rabbit became the beginning of all the stories I have written since… By thinking about toys and remembering toys, they suddenly become very much alive. Toys I had loved as a little girl — my almost forgotten Tubby, who was the rabbit, and Old Dobbin, the Skin Horse, and the toys my children had loved." Her daughter Pamela once remarked that her mother treated their toys as if they were real.

Williams’ writings, although not prolific, ranged widely, including translations, educational readers and a travel book about Paris. She died in 1944 after a three-day illness.

Rabbits
www.DiscoverySchool.com —A fantastic website! Has resources for students, teachers and parents. The A-Z science section has great information on all kinds of rabbits.
www.barbiebrownsbunnies.com—More information on bunnies than you ever wanted to know from behavior to habitat to bunny world records.
www.Rabbit.org—More rabbit information and links.
Activities and Stories
www.storiestogrowby.com—Full text version of The Velveteen Rabbit and other classic children’s stories.
www.Members.iinet.nef.au/~rabbit/rabfun.html—Kid friendly page with links to all kinds of information and activities about rabbits. Also includes full text version of The Velveteen Rabbit and other bunny stories.
History of Toys
www.historychannel.com/exhibits/toys —Very interesting. Includes a timeline, quiz and fun facts about the toy industry.
www.houseoftoys.com—another great toy website. Has an antique toy gallery with wonderful pictures of toys kids may not have seen or heard of before.

Toyland
Perhaps one of the reasons that Margery Williams’ story has touched children for all these years is the appeal of believing that our toys are more than just plastic or cloth or wood. In the culture of childhood, playthings really are important props in the development of the whole child. Use the exercise here to help your students connect their world to the world of the play.
Have each student bring in a special stuffed animal of their own for show and tell. As each child is telling, prompt them to imagine what kinds of things their toy likes to do. Then, working individually, have students write or dictate an adventure their toy might have, then illustrate it if they chose. In large group time, hold the student’s stories up and ask if they’d like them to be read. With the author’s approval, read the stories to the class and plan time for them to enact parts of each story. Allow the author to serve as director, choosing parts and helping students show the action of their adventure. Remember that many children can play the same part and not every child needs to participate actively—observers are learning too! In a follow up discussion, ask how students felt seeing a story they’ve written come to life, the way the nursery toys do in The Velveteen Rabbit.

Pre-Show Activities
General
As a class, read the original story of The Velveteen Rabbit.
· Have your students share stories of their favorite toys. Discuss which toys children like and don’t like, and why.
· Discuss how toys have changed over time. Have students ask their parents and grandparents what their favorite toys were. Share the answers with the rest of the class and then discuss how the answers differ or are similar to what children like today.
· Have your students select a favorite scene from the book and act it out.
Drama
· Have each student become his or her favorite toy. Pretend it is late at night and the toys come alive.
· Have your students act out the scene from the book where the Velveteen Rabbit meets the toys in the nursery for the first time.
· Have your students act out the scene where the wild rabbits meet the Velveteen Rabbit for the first  time.

Post-Show Activities
Art
· Have your students illustrate their own Velveteen Rabbit book. Have them draw pictures of the  Velveteen Rabbit when he was new and after he became well-loved.  Have them draw pictures of other  characters and compare their pictures with other students. Discuss how everyone sees things differently  in his or her imagination.
· Have your students draw a picture of their favorite toys from the past and today. Make a classroom  mural of these toy pictures.
Language Arts
· Ask your students to describe the Velveteen Rabbit using only adjectives and adverbs.
· Have each student bring in a special toy and write a description of it. See if the class can match the toys to their descriptions.
· Have your students write a remembrance of an important event or celebration. Ask them to have a member of their family write a description of the same event and compare the descriptions. Discuss with your students why the descriptions may differ.
· Discuss the following statements with your students.
o We can only love others after we start loving ourselves.
o Being real means being able to fail.
o Being real means being able to care for someone else.
o Being different is hard.
o To be loved is to.....

Order Activity
Have students list important events from the story on the board. As a group, put the following play events in their proper order - what happens first, next, etc. Examples are listed below.
A. ____ The toys must be burned because of germs.
B. ____ The Velveteen Rabbit becomes real to the boy because it is loved.
C. ____ The Skin Horse tells the Velveteen Rabbit about being real.
D. ____ The Boy becomes sick with scarlet fever.
E. ____ The fairy appears and makes the Velveteen Rabbit real to everyone.

Rabbit Facts
- Newborn Rabbits have no fur and are blind and helpless.
- Mother Rabbits shelter their young in a soft nest lined with fur that they pull out of their chest with their teeth..
- Cottontails are the most common wild rabbits in North America. They inhabit fields, prairies, marshes and swamps—wherever they can find bushes or clumps of tall grass in which to hide.
- European Rabbits are the most prevalent wild rabbits in Europe, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean. They have become pests in many of these regions and can present a threat to plant life.
- There are more than 40 breeds of domesticated rabbits including the Californian, Dutch, Holland lop, Netherland Dwarf, and Satin.
- The Angora Rabbit’s long silky fur is spun into a soft, warm yarn. Rabbit fur is also used in making stuffed toys.
- Rabbits rely mostly on their hearing to alert them to danger. They can move their long, sensitive ears together or one at a time to catch sounds from any direction.
- A rabbit’s teeth grow continually throughout their lives.
- Rabbits protect themselves mainly by hiding or running away.
- Female rabbits are called does. Male rabbits are called bucks.
- Rabbits are nocturnal animals. They eat and play from dusk until dawn and spend the day resting and sleeping.
- A frightened rabbit can leap 10 feet or more and can travel as fast as 25 miles per hour.
- European rabbits live in large colonies and will warn one another about danger by making loud thumps with their hind feet before running off.
- People are a rabbits greatest natural enemy. Hunters kill millions of rabbits each year for sport and food.
- European Rabbits make interconnecting burrows under the ground that can be several hundred feet long.

Play Character Concentration
You will need: Large blank index cards. Crayons or markers. Copy of the story for children to refer to. Scissors.
Begin by reviewing the characters in the story with the children. Record the characters names on the chalkboard. Try to list as many characters as there are children in the class.

Tell the children that they are going to play the game concentration, using pictures of the characters they have just discussed. If necessary, explain how concentration is played. Tell the children that in this game they will match the two halves of a character card. Explain that they will draw the character cards themselves.

Pass out the index cards and have each child choose a story character to illustrate. Children may refer to the book for ideas. Help each child label their cards with the name of the character. When everyone is finished, collect the cards and show them to the class one at a time. Help children identify the character on each card.

Divide the cards into three or four equal groups of cards and cut each card in half. (If you have 20 total cards and divide them into four groups, you will end up with four decks of ten cards that make five characters.) Remind children that the idea is to match the two halves of a character card.

Divide the class into groups and have them play concentration with their new character cards. After each group has finished a game, the decks can be rotated so that each group will have a chance to play with each card.

Teaching Options:
Write the same number on each pair of cards to ensure accurate matches.

Illustrate several stories and combine the decks of cards to make the game more challenging.

Have each child do two cards—one of the character and one of something that character would wear or carry. (i.e.: bunny & carrot, Nana & sewing basket)