EYFS Activities: Sharing books… One Ted Falls out of Bed

This is the story of a teddy bear who falls out of a child’s bed one night. Cleverly, the numbers one to ten are woven into the rhyming text, so we watch as Ted and three mice drive around in four toy cars, look out at five stars, have tea with six dolls and take a trip using eight balloons. But as the night goes on, Ted wants to go back to bed.

Working together, the toys and mice build a staircase out of ten wooden bricks. Ted climbs up but the bricks collapse beneath him, leaving him on the floor as everyone else scurries away. The story ends happily with the child waking up and pulling Ted back into bed.

A GOOD CHOICE

The rhyming text is quite short, making it suitable to share with two-year-olds, who will enjoy the simple story. Three- and four-year-olds will enjoy counting the various elements within the story, while early readers who are familiar with the book will be able to access it independently. It is also a book to recommend to parents as a bedtime story for their children, as the final image of Ted tucked up and comfy in bed is delightful.

SHARING THIS BOOK

This book is worth sharing several times. On the first reading, focus on the story rather than on counting. On the second reading, encourage children to look at the illustrations that show what Ted and the three mice are doing.

Depending on the age and stage of children, it is then worth looking at how the numbers in the text relate to the images on the page; one Ted, two eyes, three mice and, finally, ten red bricks in ascending and then descending order.

SUPPORTING LEARNING

Personal, social and emotional development

Bedtime is an important part of a young child’s day, so you could encourage children to talk about:

• where they sleep and what, if anything, they take to bed
• their bedtime routines, such as having a shower or bath, getting into nightclothes and cleaning their teeth
• why managing to sleep can sometimes be difficult – perhaps due to having nightmares or being woken by a sibling.

There is also scope to talk about feelings. During the story, Ted feels a little sad, and one of the frogs tells him to ‘cheer up’. You could explore why Ted feels sad when the mice and the frogs are having such fun. You could also talk about times when children might need to be kind to others who are looking sad.

Mathematics

Counting is an important feature of this book. So, encourage the children to:

• count the ‘three mice’, ‘seven trolls’ or ‘eight balloons’
• match numerals to the images, or even create a number line using photocopies or sketches from the book and numerals.

It is important to point out how the numbers in the story initially ascend from one to ten, then descend to one again after the staircase of ten bricks collapses.

Using this image from the book, challenge the children to recreate the staircase and build others. How many more bricks would they need to create a staircase with five steps?

You could also challenge the children to find groups of toys from the story in your setting. Can they find four toy cars or six dolls?

Language development

Once the children are familiar with the story, encourage them to complete some of the rhymes.

The story contains some words and phrases that may be unfamiliar, such as ‘gaze’ and ‘sip’. Can older children explain the meaning of these words and how they are different to ‘look’ and ‘drink’? You might also like to draw children’s attention to the meaning and sound of the alliterative ‘running riot’.

Expressive Arts and Design

Look at the theme of bedrooms and bedtime in the role-play area. Talk about what is needed to create a bedroom. You could make up a bed or a cot and include props such as duvets, sheets and blankets, a teddy bear and some nightclothes.

Understanding the world

The story features nine musical frogs, each playing a different instrument. These include a trombone, double bass, guitar and one that is hard to identify but may be a copper serpent (a forerunner of the tuba).

Use online videos to let the children hear what each instrument sounds like (see, for example, https://bit.ly/39Z4tfo). Do children have a favourite instrument? Will anyone locally come in and play one of the instruments?

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Over the course of this monthly series on sharing books with children, Penny Tassoni will look at a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, from rhyming books for babies to picture books that adults and children can explore together.