Winnie The Pooh - the complete collection of stories and poems written by A.A. Milne, illustrated by E.H. Shepard and published by Ted Smart is a classic collection of stories and poems beautifully written and illustrated. I loved Winnie The Pooh so much when I was younger that I had a Winnie The Pooh themed bedroom and he still has a special place in my heart today. I love the other characters too. Rabbit who loves gardening, Piglet who is Pooh's best friend, Tigger who loves jumping, Eeyore who loses his tail, wise Owl and Kanga and little Roo. Not forgetting of course Christopher Robin who is also a large part of the story.
Activities
A walk in the countryside/wood/local park with a balloon
Butterfly spot
Colour and butterfly discussion
Garden exploration tray
Hunny garden pot
Bee sticks
Picnic
Honey tasting (not suitable for children under 1)
Cutting and grating carrots
Winnie The Pooh Fruit jar
Piglet inspired dessert
Paper plate characters
Carrot numeracy
Outdoor sensory tray
Design Eeyore's tail
Outdoor
Winnie the Pooh is mostly based outside in Hundred Acre Wood so there are lots of lovely outdoor activities to do that go along nicely with this book. You could go for a walk in the countryside, or a wood or a local park with a balloon and do a butterfly spot. Younger children could just point the butterflies out whereas older children could keep count or do a tally chart. You could have a discussion about the different colours that can be seen on the walk or the names of the different butterflies if you know them. You could also introduce the word symmetrical. For a messy outdoor activity you could fill a tray with soil/compost and put some carrots in along with a hand trowel and garden fork and let your child/children just play. Some children will only play for a few minutes whereas other children will play for a while. You can do this activity with younger and older children. For another garden related activity you could paint a honey pot with your child/children. Using a terracotta plant pot they can paint the bottom what ever colour they want but paint the top yellow with drops coming down as if it is the honey. In Winnie The Pooh they spell honey differently so if you want it spelt the way it is in the book it is spelt 'Hunny'. To extend this activity you could make some bees on sticks and stick them in the plant pots. You could use garden cane and then put pegs on it and add some bees to the pegs. These could be made using thin bits of wood and then varnish them or make with card and then laminate it to make the bees waterproof. Your child/children could then give their pot away as a gift or plant their own plant in their pot and watch it grow. A final fun and fairly easy activity is to have a picnic. This could be in the garden or out and about.
Food/Cooking
An obvious activity would be to taste some honey or to make something tasty such as honey biscuits or porridge with honey in it as it is Winnie The Pooh's favourite food and mentioned lots in the book. Remember not to give honey or honey products to a child under 1 as it can make them poorly. Rabbit grows carrots so for slightly older children you could teach them to grate and cut carrots safely. This is a good life skill for them to learn and children love being able to use knives as it makes them feel grown up. For a Winnie The Pooh inspired dessert you could do a fruit jar (your jar needs to be see through as when you have finished it should look a bit like Winnie The Pooh). Put a yellow fruit at the bottom of the jar like pineapple or mango and then a red fruit like strawberries or red cherries as a middle layer for his t-shirt and then top with the yellow fruit. It will look like Winnie The Pooh's body. For a Piglet inspired dessert make some strawberry whip and then use strawberries for the ears put a piece of banana just under the surface and cover with whip to raise the nose and then use chocolate drops or raisins for the eyes and nostrils.
Indoor
All of the characters could be made using paper plates, paint, coloured card and paper. Encourage your child/children to be as imaginative as possible with the different materials that you make available for them and they could choose one character or make them all. If you make a bee on stick using card, pens and a lolly stick and then your child/children could make some orange carrots using card and paint. If you put numbers on them you could teach younger children number recognition and older children to add and subtract. For a sensory activity you could collect different sticks, leaves and petals on a walk and then put these on a tray for your child/children to explore. You could talk about shape, texture, colour, smell etc. Older children could write down similarities and differences and younger children could just play and make a mess. Not forgetting Eeyore, a final activity to go along with this book could be designing a new tail for him. Let your child/children be as creative as they want and think about what Eeyore might like. They could also make a matching tail for themselves.
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