Travelling Teddies
Melody Meneely
Age Range: 5 to 11
About 18 months ago my class and I sent Pompey Pete, a little bear dressed
in holiday gear with a camera etc. on a world tour. Being Portsmouth
based and Pompey being the local name for our football team, we decided he
had to be called Pompey Pete!
Pete went accompanied with letters from all my Year 4/5 children, a photograph of the class, some maps, postcards and info about our school and Portsmouth etc. in a journal. I did a covering letter explaning the idea behind Pete's trip and asking for a postcard to be sent from his holiday destination with some info about weather etc. Further info, postcards, sweet wrappers or anything to do with his holiday destination that was easy to stick in or include with his journal was requested.
Some friends brought back bits to so that the children could try them out first hand. The recipients started off as friends and a list of worldwide addresses for willing participants was added to the journal so that nobody was stuck for passing on Pete.
His first trip was to Abu Dhabi and within about ten days we had a postcard back. We tracked his journey on a world map and blu-tacked the postcards around the map, having taken a photocopy of the text so that both picture and text could be viewed together. Next was a trip to the States and Christmas in New York. A trip to Macys and the Christmas Parade etc. followed, details briefly sent on a postcard. From cold NY to hot and blistering Texas next. The journeys continued - Canada, the far east, Spain, France etc. and very conveniently to Amsterdam when we did work on Anne Frank!
The journal has come back full of photos with Pete and his holiday companions etc. He is off again in September to destinations unknown. Have you ever tasted Banana Catsup from Abu Dhabi? My class did - banana ketchup to you and me! Kit-Kats with arabic writing as well as English. You name it they've picked up lots of geography about real live people, food, weather etc. and got photos too.
Pete's cousin, Sailor Sam (the naval connection) is currently doing the tour of local schools in Portsmouth. He should have come back to St. Swithun's last month but is probably lurking in a cupboard somewhere! We were more adventurous this time and made a class video. Once we get our internet connection set up next term we'll have another means of connecting world-wide.
Michael Taylor runs the website www.wheresmyteddy.com which can help set up your school with a travelling teddy bear. They have lots of bears on the go from lots of classes - it's easy to do and you can track your bear's progress through the website easily!
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