..........................and How They Became Best Friends by Swapping Houses

Story made up by Reception Children at Leighswood School Aldridge in 2002.  Click on the pictures for better quality copies

Once upon a time there was a bear.  He was a big, blue bear, with big sharp teeth and big sharp claws, and fuzzy brown big hair.  Everything about the bear was big, except for his house.  The bear lived on the edge of a forest, in a tiny house.  Everything was too small for the bear.  His feet stuck out of the end of the bed, he got stuck in the chairs, he got stuck in the bath, and he banged his head on all the doors.  The thing the bear most wanted was to live in a bigger house.

Now the dog had a house, right on the other edge of the forest.  It looked like a kennel, but was much much bigger.  It reached right up to the sky.

One day, the bear went all the way through the forest, and knocked on the door of the dogs big house.  He looked at the kennel house.  It was so much bigger than his house, bigger than people, bigger than a church, so big it went right the way up to the clouds.  The bear thought, ‘Wow!  I would like to live in this bear-sized house’.  He knocked again, but no-one answered, so he tried to open the door with his finger, but he could not.  So he lifted the roof of the house, climbed carefully in, and put the roof back on.  He was so excited in the big house.  Everything was the right size for a bear.  The chair, the bed, the doors, the bath.  He tried them all, and every one was exactly right.  He made himself at home.

Just then, the dog arrived home.  He could smell something funny, so he rushed about the house looking, and found the bear, lying in his bath.  The bear was surprised and got straight out, saying he was sorry.  But the dog was not angry.  It turned out that he did not like living in such a big house.  He wanted a smaller house, and he had been shopping looking for one. ‘If you want a small house, and I want a big house’ said the bear, ‘why don’t we swap houses?’ 

And that is exactly what happened.  Now the bear lives in the dogs house, and sleeps in a big bed, and the dog lives in a small house, where he can sit and wag his tail.  The dog and the bear have been very good friends ever since.

The end