This activity lets students share things about their lives. History is personal. It also can look at geography as they can discuss where the toy goes with the student.
Some classes take this idea further. The activity does not have to be confined to the students in your class. Some teachers send their class mascots to other schools, countries they also might take them on holiday. When you send your stuffed animal to these places your students will have the opportunity to learn about the place where your toy has gone. One way to do this is to set up a blog so that the school where your stuffed toy has gone can write blog posts, or if a friend has gone on holiday and taken your stuffed animal with them they can post things on the blog for the class to read. If you send your stuffed animal to another school then they might send you one of their own and you can do the same for them so you are learning about each other.
This is an activity that you can do at any age or VELS level. The difficulty of the tasks however would increase as the students increase in age. Students in Prep to grade six could participate in this activity and enjoy it while learning about geography, history and how other people live.
You can read some of the blogs that classes have showing how they have implemented this idea:
Tommy the Traveling Bear
Adventures of Ed the Bear
Traveling with Mr 'Davo' Devil
Magnie the Whale
Rohis Travels
Squirrels tours Downunder
Salt and Peppa
Another class took this idea and changed it. They read the book ‘Flat Stanley’ and then made their own flat selves. Their flat selves then travelled to a partner school in Singapore while the students at their partner school in Singapore sent their own flat selves to the students at the school.
You can read their blog here:
Flat Stanely Global Project