Martin Waddell's Can't you sleep, Little Bear? (Walker Books, 4.99) is the story of a young bear reluctant to go to bed because he is scared of the dark. Big Bear comforts him by providing bigger lanterns. Finally, Big Bear takes him out in to the night. At first Little Bear feels frightened, but as he looks around at the moonlit world, his anxiety subsides - there is nothing to fear. He is safe in the arms of Big Bear and, at last, falls asleep.
The story offers a sensitive approach to a common anxiety and children will readily relate to Little Bear and his delaying tactics at bedtime. Warm illustrations by Barbara Firth will delight both children and adults.
The book is an ideal starting point for directly addressing children's anxieties and exploring feelings. It also provides a fertile basis for planning spin-off activities across all areas of learning.
For fear
* Pass a teddy bear around during circle time and encourage the children to say what frightens them when the bear reaches them.
* Develop this idea by displaying removable laminated 'feelings faces' in the setting. They will help the children to communicate their feelings to adults and each other.
* Ask children to care for a teddy bear overnight. Involve parents by asking them to talk about bedtime routines with their child.
* Include 'Little Bear's bedtime picture book' in the bear's overnight 'case'. Encourage the children to draw something that makes them feel happy in the book before they return both bear and book to the setting.
Firm favourites
* Set up a lending library and encourage children to take books and story tapes home to enjoy at bedtime.
* Ask children to bring favourite bedtime story books from home to share with other children in the setting. Encourage them to talk about their books. Scribe children's comments and compile a book of simple 'reviews'.
* Encourage children to write to their own teddy bears, inviting them to come to Little Bear's birthday tea party in the home corner.
Little and large
* Talk about the 'big' and 'little' bears and lanterns mentioned in the story. Introduce some big and little furniture, cutlery and crockery into the home corner and ask children to match these to big and little teddy bears.
* Make a simple chart to record children's preferences. Display the question 'Do you like to go to sleep with the light on or off?' at the top. Provide simple picture clues and ask children to record their preference by attaching their name card under the appropriate picture. Count the names in each column and discuss findings.
Light and dark
* Talk about light and dark and make a display or picture list of things that produce light, for example, the sun, a torch, fire, candle, streetlight and lamp.
* Build a dark 'bear cave' in the setting using black material to cover a frame. Allow the children to explore the cave with torches and then to identify objects in the dark by touch or sound. Some children may be reluctant to enter the 'cave' and prefer to identify objects in a feely bag.
* Draw around children's shadows with chalk and observe how they change shape and position during the day.
Through the trees
* Set up a 'forest' in the nursery's outside area using cardboard boxes and crates as trees. Ask the children to move as if they were big, heavy bears around the obstacles, without touching them, until they reach the Little Bear at the other side of the 'forest'.
Out of the shadows
* Ask the children to set up a home for the bears in the 'bear cave' (see above) using home corner equipment. Encourage imaginative story-making and role play.
* Construct a simple puppet theatre with a screen of thin, white fabric. Make bear shadow puppets, using card and split pins, with the children and attach a stick handle to each puppet. Creating shadows with an angled lamp, use the puppets to represent the characters in bear stories and songs. Help the children make up their own stories.