Suggested activities and information for teachers and educators
Why Not Start a “Where’s My Teddy?” Adventure for Your Class?
Setting a teddy off on his or her travels is a great way to get kids engaged in exploring the world in which we live. Not only will they find out about other cities and countries, it’s also a great way to explore other cultures and make contact with other people and schools. Use Teddy as a class mascot and set them off on their travels and who knows where they’ll end up and who they’ll meet along the way?
Learning through Adventure
How you choose to run your particular adventure is limited only by your own imagination. Here’s a couple of suggestions to get you going.
The Simple Version
Each member of the class takes it in turn to take the teddy home with them, or, even better, take the bear with them on holiday somewhere. While they have the bear, they take pictures of what they and teddy are up to and upload these pictures with a little text (don’t worry – this is extremely straightforward!) They can upload as many pictures and stories about what they and teddy have been up to as they like – there’s no limit. When their time’s up, they simply pass teddy on to the next person in their class, and so on. By the end, you’ll have a complete record of what everyone in the class has been up to with teddy, where they’ve been and who they’ve met along the way.
The More Complicated Version
Teddy is owned by the class, and he or she is set off on their adventure by being passed between schools. Each school class the bear encounters loads up some information about their class, school and country. You can either using existing school links, or pass the bear on to teachers you know in other schools or who you might meet during your travels and conferences. This is a potentially exciting way of making contact with schools in other countries, and of making links that otherwise might not have happened.
Online Safety
Be careful about what kind of information you upload – especially pictures. Get parents permission first. An alternative is to upload pictures which feature the bear only. We constantly monitor the site and remove any doubtful or unwanted postings – but please bear in mind that you should always check to see what children are looking at when accessing the web. We run a report and remove policy – the sheer volume of posts means that we can’t check everything before it’s uploaded. We strongly recommend that children under thirteen do not register themselves, but instead get a parent, teacher or guardian to do it for them. Do not post any personal email address on the website either. If you want other schools to contact you leave a generic email address or the school’s website address instead.
Some Ideas for Classroom Activities
- Competitions - go into competition with another class or school. Whose bear can travel the furthest in a set amount of time? Which bear will end up in the most exotic place? Which one met the most people? Even more difficult, who can get their teddy to a specific destination or person first? A chance to put the six degrees of separation theory to the test!
- Creative Writing - write your own “Where’s My Teddy?” story. Ask the children in your class to imagine that they are a travelling Teddy Bear. Ask them to write a story about their adventures. What is their name? Who bought them first? Where did they travel to and with whom, and what did they see on the way? Where did they end up?
- Math - ask the children to work out how far teddy has travelled, and to see which bears have travelled furthest. Explore with students the different time zones teddy has visited, and how they work.
- Geography - ask the children to find the bear closest to a given city or town using the Google Map based “Find a Bear/Bear Hunt” facility. This is a great way to get them to explore the world map and zoom in and out to find particular places of interest.
- Art - paint a picture that describes all or part of your teddy’s adventure.
- Keep a Journal or Diary About Teddy - ask a member of the class to write on the web about what Teddy has been up to today – this works best if you have a class teddy that travels only between members of the same class.
- Research - ask the class to find out about and present their findings about different aspects of the city or country where the class teddy currently is or has recently visited. What does the national flag look like? What is the capital city? What kind of food do people eat there? What's the national sport? Who is the prime minister or head of state?, etc. You can also make a presentation about your school and country. If students themselves have connections to other countries, ask them to describe something about that country and their experiences of visiting or hearing about it.
- Food - ask students to prepare a meal from a selected country teddy has visited.
And Finally…
Get going! Visit our Adventure Shop >>
If you have any ideas, concerns, or questions, please contact us!
Educational Games - External Links
Sesame Street's Grover needs help making and sending postcards from his travels around the world.
How tall is Teddy? An interactive game for younger children.
Culture in a Box (Ages 10-16)
A neat way for your class to describe your country and your culture for others. Why not use this excercise as a basis for a blog post explaining your culture, traditions and location from a Travelling Teddy Bear's perspective?
Other Useful Links
Google Earth - Lots of images and geographical information for kids to explore.
World Wind - Explore the Earth's terrain in 3D with NASA.
SLN - Award winning geography resources site for teachers
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