For generations children have loved their teddy bears and today's children are no exception. Early years practitioners can capitalise on children's love of teddy bears by planning a project around children's cuddly best friends.
To start the project, gather together a large collection of teddies for children to handle, investigate and cuddle. Then share a teddy bear story.
A story about teddies - and there are plenty to choose from - provides a good springboard for a variety of activities that promote learning across the Foundation Stage curriculum.
One story that lends itself well to a project on teddy bears is Too Many Teddies by Gus Clarke, to be republished next month by Andersen Press (Pounds 4.99). This is a story about a little boy, Frank, who decides that he has too many teddies. He thinks people give them to him because they secretly desire a teddy for themselves. Frank resolves to find new homes for all his teddies by fostering them with the very people who bought them in the first place.
This is a humorous story that is told entirely from a child's perspective and demonstrates how Frank considers and resolves his problem. In particular, children should relate to Frank's amusing discovery: that adults secretly enjoy playing with cuddly teddy bears.
Out on a limb
Make counting fun by encouraging children to identify and name teddies'
body parts. This activity will help give children a better understanding of their own bodies and make them more aware of the symmetry of limbs and facial features.
Good practice
* Sit five teddies of a similar size before a group of four children.
* Ask them to choose a teddy each.
* Encourage them to look at the teddy and compare their human body parts with those of the teddy.
* Where necessary, model vocabulary for limbs and features.
* Ask the children to count the body parts on the teddy before them. For example: How many eyes/feet/paws does it have?
* Next, ask two children to count the features and body parts of two bears.
Finally, line up all the bears and ask all the children to count the bears'
features and body parts.
* Support the children consistently by role modelling the mathematical language they require, for instance, by introducing them to counting in twos. They will begin to understand this concept as they relate it to the pairs of teddies' arms, legs and eyes that they see and touch.
* Ensure that you pose lots of open-ended questions to help initiate participation and prompt verbal responses.
* To extend thinking and problem-solving with more able children, use a greater number of teddies and encourage them to count the body parts in twos to reach a higher number.
Portrait painters
Encourage children of four and five years to make portraits of teddies for a creative display. The observation of teddies' body parts and features, stimulated in the counting activity, will have prepared the children well for the task of representing the toys in individual and creative ways.
Good practice
* Help children to select and mix coloured paints for the task.
* Ask children to comment on some of the finer features of the teddies they want to paint. Observe the texture of their fur, the shape of their heads and stomachs, and the expression on their faces.
* Emphasise the nature of the materials used to make the teddies, such as fur fabric, leather, plastic eyes and embroidered mouths.
* Encourage children to include these features in their paintings.
* Support children as they paint by encouraging them to talk about the teddies, describing their shape, size and colour. Remind each child to look frequently at the teddy chosen for the portrait, so that the particular characteristics of the designated bear are represented as accurately as possible.
* It is surprising how seriously children will take the task when guided and encouraged by a supportive, enthusiastic and sensitive adult.
* Ensure that they have sufficient time to complete the paintings even if that requires further sessions.
* Leave the paintings to dry. Display them as they are or ask the children to cut around the teddies so that they can be glued on to a contrasting background.
* To give this display a three-dimensional effect, you could stuff a small amount of rolled-up tissue paper or bubble wrap behind each of the teddies before it is fixed to the background. This will make the teddies look more life-like.
Present time
Much emphasis is placed in Too Many Teddies on how adults often shower young children with gifts, for both significant events, like birthdays, and for trivial reasons, such as behaving well while shopping. Encourage discussion on when and why gifts are given. By the age of five, children are becoming more reflective about the behaviour of adults and peers, and they have begun to develop theories about what they think is right and wrong. Also, at this age, children usually enjoy the opportunity to describe experiences and compare aspects of their family's behaviour to those of their peers.
Good practice
* Share again the story Too Many Teddies with a small group of children so that they can all see and comment on the illustrations.
* Encourage them to identify the different events that prompt adults to give Frank a new teddy.
* Ask them to observe the adults' facial expressions and talk about how they feel.
* Talk about who gave the children their teddies, why and how they felt about the gift.
* Discuss Frank's theory that adults secretly want to keep the teddies that they buy. Do the children agree? Why? Give the children time to be inventive in their responses. This questioning is likely to spark some enthusiastic replies as children love the idea that adults can be childish too.
* Also discuss Frank's theory that a child can have too many teddies. Do they agree? Why? What would they like to do with surplus toys?
* Support children throughout the discussion by role modelling useful words, by showing good listening skills and by responding sensitively to all forms of self-expression.
Ten in a bed
Illustrations of Frank's bed full of teddies are reminiscent of the traditional song 'Ten in a Bed'. Encourage the children to make ten teddies as props to accompany the song.
Good practice
* Provide a selection of oblong cardboard boxes, such as packaging from tomato puree or toothpaste tubes for the children to make a bed for small bear puppets.
* Explain how they can stuff each box with straw or crumpled newsprint and tape it firmly at both ends, to make a bed.
* Provide lollipop sticks, cardboard, scissors, glue and felt-tip pens for the children to design and draw bears, or other characters, on cardboard that they can cut out and glue on to the end of each lollipop stick.
Children need to make between five and ten characters, depending on their level of interest and concentration.
* With adult help, allow the children to make five or ten holes along one side, using scissors or a blunt knife, and insert the bears.
* When you sing the song together, remove a bear at the end of each verse and ask the children to count the remaining bears.
* Extend the activity with older children by creating more elaborate felt faces or whole cardboard bodies to attach to the lollipop sticks.
* Let the children take the props home to share with parents or en-courage parents to make such props with their children. NW
