Garden Focus

The teddy bears were all out in the garden, the younger ones playing tag and shouting and laughing at the tops of their voices. And eventually giving Scary a bit of a headache! Then he had an idea!

"Hey, everybody," he called loudly, trying to make himself heard. "Who wants to play a new game? There will be prizes," he added.

The little bears stopped in their tracks and looked at one another. A new game? With prizes? That sounded like fun so they ran over to Scary and started to ask loads of questions.

"What's the game?" asked Lizzie.

"What do we have to do?" asked Henry.

"And there'll be prizes?" asked Crackers.

"OK!" laughed Scary. "Not so many questions, and not all at once!"

The little bears quietened down and waited for Scary to explain the new game.

"You'll each need about 4 feet of string, and 4 pegs to peg into the ground, and a pencil and a piece of paper" he started. "When you've each got all those things, come back and I'll tell you what to do next."

The little bears split up into two groups. One went back into the house to find pencils and paper for everyone. The other group ran into the garden shed to get string and pegs.

When they all returned to Scary, he outlined the game to them. "You take your string and mark out a one foot square on the ground, using the pegs to keep the outline taut. If you need help you can ask one of us" (and here he pointed to Teddy, Charlie, Bubbles and himself).

"Once you have marked out your square, we're going to set a timer for one hour and during that time you are to write down everything you see in your square. So make sure you choose an interesting bit of garden. Now off you go!"

The little bears ran off to peg out their string squares. "Scary, when you say 'everything'" asked Harry, "what do you mean exactly?"

Scary explained. "Everything is every single thing you see within your square, whether it's there all the time, or just visits. For example, there's a butterfly on that flower over there. He won't stay there for an hour, but if he was in your square, then you would add him to your list."

"OK," replied Harry. "I get it!"

"And don't forget," continued Scary. "There's not just grass in your square. If you look very carefully you should be able to find some flowers, or some insects, or some interesting pebbles. There should be lots of things to write on your lists."

For the next hour, it was blissfully quiet in the garden, and Scary even had time to snatch 40 winks, stretched out in his deckchair in the warm sunshine.

The little bears made sure not to disturb him, and asked their questions of the other big bears instead. Teddy had brought out some nature identification books, and he helped the little bears to look up the names of flowers and insects they found in their squares if they didn't know them. So they were learning about nature as well as enjoying their game. And Charlie and Bubbles wandered around to check that things on lists had actually been in the marked squares, though they knew that the little bears normally played very fairly.

Charlie came across Vicky looking a little bit sad and asked what was wrong. "I can't seem to find anything much in my square," she whispered, looking very dejected. "You have to really focus your attention on the ground," replied Charlie, "if you look very closely you may be very surprised to see lots of tiny flowers and insects on your patch," and he leaned over to help her to look. He pointed out a couple of ants that were walking over the ground, and then a tiny bit of moss which, when looked at closely, resembled a teeny, tiny forest. "Thankyou, Charlie," Vicky said, "I never even noticed those until you pointed them out. I'll look more closely now."

When the hour was up, Bubbles gave Scary a little shake and he woke up and called them all together.

They each went through their lists and were given points depending on what they had seen. There were more points for very tiny creatures that the bears would have had to focus on very hard to see. And extra points for fleeting visitors, especially if Bubbles had managed to take a photo of them, like the butterfly Scary had pointed out earlier, or the bee that had visited one of the flowers on Lizzie's patch. Or if anyone had found something really unusual or amusing - like the sticky bobs that had clung to Crackers - and then to his friend, Oscar!

When all the points were added up, Crackers had the most! (It must have been the extra points for the sticky bobs that did it! Or Scary had felt sorry for him because it had taken so long to get them out of his fur!) His prize was a packet of sweeties, which he dutifully shared with the others, and a new notebook, which he instantly started to fill with details of all the new things he had discovered during the game.

All the bears then enjoyed a quiet sit down with some cold lemonade. Scary was secretly pleased that he had found a game that the other bears had enjoyed so much, and that had given him just a few minutes of peace and quiet in the garden!

This would be a great game to play in your own gardens or out on a walk somewhere. Remember not to cause any damage wherever you play. And you'll have to focus really hard sometimes to see the very tiny plants and animals that live on the ground. Have fun!