Bear Stays up for Christmas - Focus day activities
 

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Bear Stays up for Christmas - written by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman



A wonderful story that we've only just come across :smile:

Short rhyming verses on each page follow Bear and his friends as they attempt to help him stay awake and see in Christmas morning ..

The day before christmas
snuggled on the floor
Bear sleeps soundly
with a great big snore

'Dear Bear GET UP'.
Mouse shouts in his ear
'We won't let you sleep
through Christmas this year'.

Together they bring home the Christmas tree. Prepare foods and decorate Bears cave - a visit from Santa later that night makes sure there are plenty of presents to go around ..



Some nice keywords for language are 'hoist, toil, hare, snore, stomp and tromp, plod and trudge, doze and hang.
Some emotions and actions: Sigh, shout, stretch, lie down and stay up ..

This is a brilliant read with huge scope for activity based play :cheerful:

A few ideas could be:

:bear: Craft bears warm cave in a snowy landscape:

• Fold a sheet of black paper in half and cut a hole to represent the cave mouth in one half of the paper. At the end of the activity this half of te paper can act as a flap, defining the outside and inside of the cave. For the outside, fill, collage and glue artificial snow, hollow fibre stuffing and other snow type material. Use the Children's own bear pictures to make the cave a home. Glue behind the cut out hole.
• Extend with green tissue trees and glitter / sparkles.

:bear: Snack time - popcorn, fruitcake, apple and orange
Nutritional information - popcorn on wikipedia, veggietrumps: orange & apple

:bear: Garland decorations - string together leaf shaped paper; real, plastic & other medium - risk assess where the garlands will hang and decorate walls and display areas. Tinsel on amazon.co.uk,

:bear: Role play follow the leader with a long chunky length of rope/tinsel and trudge through an imaginative snowy glen with bear, badger, mouse, hare, gopher, mole, wren and raven ..

:bear: Sensory play - find fir cones and dried fruit on amazon.co.uk and make own resources to add interest to sand, water, artificial snow trays.

:bear: Questions to support communication
Wreath Who helped bear stay awake in the story and how could you help a friend stay awake?

• make noise
• play games
• talking
• walk around

Wreath How does sleepy make you feel?
stretch, yawn, heavy eyes, cross/grumpy, happy

• Sleep related information: From USA PennState's Better kid care
• Sweet dreams part 1 - thinking about sleep
• Sweet dreams part 2 - sleep recommendations, includes prefered amounts, Naptimes and Morning time madness
• Early support's Information for parents sleep booklet from Education.gov.uk
• The good-night guide from the sleep council

Wreath Who will visit you on the 24th of December - 25th's eve
Santa, Father Christmas? - parent survey for gift bringers

:bear: For planning and paperwork this topical book can help to cover: hibernation, festivals, traditions, seasons, temperature, weather, habitats, homes, animal/mammals, birds. Us images to help identification
Native and international species - Badger UK - American Badger.

Have fun and please add on with your experiences of this book

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For more Preschool Christmas Books please see our booklist