One of the cuddliest special day in Acorns is Winnie the Pooh Day, celebrated on the birthday of author A A Milne. Like every year, this occasion was marked with special activities featuring plenty of honey yellow on the menu. Children were invited to bring in their own teddy bears and share them with the others.
The entire week, children’s activities were connected to this topic:
Baby Acorns sang the teddy bear song and the nursery rhyme Miss Polly had a Dolly and learnt how to pass a teddy bear. In messy and creative play, they painted with rolling pins over bubble wrap, played with dough – using this to make eyes, nose, mouth, buttons, clothes for a teddy template and investigated small toys hidden in jelly and put together the body parts to make a doll.
Ladybirds practiced their vocabulary while singing their favourite nursery rhymes, focusing on “The Teddy Bear Song” and “Miss Polly had a dolly”. In creative time, they painted small world bears and then washed them. Children also enjoyed painting their favourite teddy or doll using colours they chose themselves.
Shiny Stars practiced describing teddy bears and dolls by their colour, size, texture. They watched the animated story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and then act out the journey. In creative activities, Shiny Stars made and painted a Paddington Bear mask (using cocoa and water as the paint) and cooked ‘honey bites’ biscuits.
Rainbows practiced the letters learnt so far and matched toys to the letter sound that they begin with, they cut out pictures of bears and sticked them from smallest to largest, and hunted for a toy hidden in the room according to clues given by the teachers. In creative, Rainbows drew pictures of toys, made a soft bear craft which they filled with cotton wool and made Winnie the Pooh ears.