When I saw the author this month for the Virtual book club was a Karma Wilson I knew straight away which book I wanted to do. There has been a lot of controversy in the UK with a Christmas advert for the store John Lewis. It centres over whether the touching ad is a plagiarism of the book “Bear Stays Up for Christmas”. It is incredibly similar, I have to say. At it’s heart both are a story of friendship – the animals don’t want the bear to miss Christmas because he will hibernate.
The bear in the story tries hard to stay up so he can enjoy Christmas with his friends. In the end he is the one who stays up and makes Christmas special for them. It is a great story for thinking what each animal would like and to discuss how gifts should suit the recipient, something the twins, aged 3, still don’t really understand. They always suggest buying people things they would like themselves.
At the end of the story the bear is given a beautiful quilt do he can go back to sleep for the rest of the Winter. After we read it the girls were very keen to make quilts for their teddies.
I have to say this activity is which which gave the girls so much pleasure. We will definitely be doing it again – which is good as it was a bit dark by the time we got started and my photos aren’t great.
You Will Need
- Felt
- Felt with an adhesive back
- Glue
- Sequins and stickers to decorate
The process is very simple. We cut squares out of the felt with an adhesive back. Of course you can just glue them or sew them on but I thought the adhesive would be quicker. I don’t think it was as it was quite hard to get off the backing. The girls then stuck them onto another piece of felt which they had chosen. I like the fact they could do it how they want and with very simple materials could make their quilt look so different.
The best thing about this activity was the story telling throughout. The teddies were very involved in the making of their quilt – they chose the felt back ground and the design and even stuck the finished thing together.
It was such a big hit we will definitely come back to it again. I think next we need to make a teddy bed.
