WARM, FUZZY TEACHER A BIG HIT WITH PUPILS\N.J. stuffed bear touring U.S. schools.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

For the past week or so, the most popular teacher at Walnut Elementary School has been a stuffed bear.

"C.C.," or Columbia's Cub, has been at Walnut since Feb. 1. He's on a cross-country, school-to-school jaunt sponsored by a New Jersey school, and he's collecting and disseminating information on how children in different regions of the country live and learn.

He eventually will return with the information to Columbia School at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, where he was constructed from polyester and other materials by two third-grade classes.

"Everything we send back there the kids will learn here," said teacher Christine McGhee, who is incorporating all manner of bear lore into her lessons at the school's Learning Center.

But it's C.C.'s cuddliness that caught the fancy of Walnut pupils.

"I like having him here, I like how he feels," said Brittany Bradley, 8. "I like having him in the classroom because we get to hold him and get to play games with him."

McGhee has incorporated C.C. and bears into the class's reading, math and social studies lessons. When not sitting on a couch watching the goings-on, C.C. could be found at the computers where the pupils worked on their lessons.

He also was taken on forays around the school, where he met with other pupils in his Baby Gap overalls and recently acquired blue Walnut School T-shirt, emblazoned with "Life Long Learner" across the front.

"That's what we hope C.C. will end up being," said McGhee, cradling the 2-foot-tall bear as she might a real baby.

C.C. began life Dec. 1 at Columbia School as the progeny of a 3-year-old language arts-social studies educational grant called Ted E. Traveler developed by three teachers at the school.

Under the program, C.C will be traveling to schools in Alabama, Louisiana, California, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Maryland. During his travels, he'll be collecting diary entries and other material illustrating living and learning in those states, McGhee said.

McGhee - an avid teddy bear collector - became part of the program through Good Bears of the World, a national club that sends teddy bears to comfort traumatized children, and elderly people throughout the world.

One of the New Jersey teachers, also a member, contacted McGhee, who immediately agreed to participate.

"I thought teddy bears are a neat way to connect people together and they're a universal symbol of love," she said.

Also, they serve as a good focal point for building her lessons, she said.

During his stay at Walnut, which ended Tuesday, C.C. picked up post cards, information from local chambers of commerce, pictures of school activities, weather information, sea shells, beach sand and other souvenirs to take back to New Jersey.

He spent part of his last day at Walnut riding over the playing field bare-back - make that bear-back - on an Arabian horse brought to the school for a class project.

Everyone seemed to have been affected by C.C.'s presence, including instructional assistant Jheri Baer, who joked that she was recently hired as McGhee's assistant because of the teacher's well-known love of bears.

"We were writing so many bear stories that I started writing my name 'bear' and the kids said 'No, it's Baer,' " she said.

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Photo (1--Color only in Conejo edition; also ran in Simi edition) Students enjoyed the visit of C.C. the bear. So did teacher's aide Jheri Baer, left rear, Principal Brad Baker and teacher Christine McGhee. (2--Conejo edition only--Color) Pupils kept a detailed journal of C.C.'s visit to Walnut Elementary. (3--Ran in Conejo and Simi editions only) Missy Novak, 8, wrote an essay about her favorite teddy bear. Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News