There's nothing like a teddy - and this month sees the centenary of the invention of the teddy bear. Below is a variety of ICT ideas for five learning areas of the Foundation Stage that a teddy theme can incorporate.
Communication, language and literacy
* Talking book bear characters include Winnie the Pooh, Goldilocks' three bears and P B Bear. Sit children in pairs to explore pages of the talking book and find 'hotspots' in the pictures.
* My World software has a series of linked screens following the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. The three scenes - sitting room, kitchen and bedroom - each have furniture and characters that children could use to prepare their own version of events and recount the story to each other.
* The BigBus website contains language activities using Bo Bear. These involve dressing Bo Bear with different clothes and would be a useful whole-class teaching resource.
Mathematical development
* The CD-Rom 'Freddy Teddy in the playground' is a great way of introducing an understanding of directional arrows. Children select a piece of playground apparatus, such as the slide, and control the teddy by giving it instructions. These can be in real-time mode, in other words teddy performing the move after each instruction, or program mode, when children build up a series of instructions that are then all operated together.
* Dress floor robots as teddy bears or associated characters and ask children to move them to honey pots, marmalade jars, porridge bowls and so on.
* The Billy Bear website has panda and teddy bear fonts that are useful for creating number and sorting activities. There is also a collection of ready-made picture dominos of different bears.
Knowledge and understanding of the world
* Use a CD-Rom such as 'My First Dictionary' to find information about bears. Provide pictures of different bears and ask children to find them using the alphabetical/pictorial search facility within the CD-Rom.
Creative development
* The Billy Bear website contains a collection of printable teddy bear doorknob hangers and bookmarks, while the DLT-kids website has a Paddington Bear template for a kitchen roll tube. There are many other animal templates and others for paper plates.
Personal, social and emotional development
* The dressing teddy on the My World software and the activities of Bo Bear at the BigBus website could support early learning goals for dressing and undressing independently.
Software
* My World by Granada Learning (0161 827 2927)
* Freddy Teddy bumper pack by Topologika (01326 377 771) has six different programmes including Freddy Teddy in the playground
* Argosphere: Bo Bear on www.thebigbus.com
* Billy Bear on www.billybear4kids.com/index.html
* Craft website on http://dltk-kids.com/
* See also the ICT review for Teddy Bears Picnic on 21 November.
