What Happened to Our Toy? - Activity Instructions

Tune In

Prepare a stuffed toy with some sort of amendment made to it, for example:

a toy rabbit may have one of its ears bandaged up
a toy animal missing a leg
a doll with an eye patch placed over one eye

As the children gather as a group, set the scene for them, telling them about this new toy they are about to meet with lots of enthusiasm and detail before you actually reveal the toy. Create a name for the toy, a backstory of where it has come from, and what it enjoys doing. Really use your imagination as you role model imaginary and creative thinking for the children. Create excitement and intrigue.

Finally, introduce the stuffed toy without drawing attention to the amendment. Notice how the children react. Offer the children the opportunity to make comments or ask questions. If any questions come up about the amendment, turn the question back on them: “What do you think happened?”

Encourage the children to use their imaginations to come up with lots of different theories about what happened to the toy, taking note of the children’s ideas.

Find Out

Introduce children to the book ‘What happened to your hand?’ by Andrea Murray. Look at the picture on the front cover and discuss what the children notice about Sam.

“We noticed something different about the boy, just the same way we noticed something different about our toy. Should we read to find out what happened to his hand? It looks different, and I am a little bit curious and wondering why it might be like that.” Role model this idea of curiosity and wonder.

Read the story to the children, emphasising the light-hearted and humorous way Sam responds to each of the questions about his hand.

At the end of the book, explain to the children that you are going to create your own class book, imagining what happened to the toy.

Take Action

Working with children individually, have them dictate what they think happened to the toy. Some children may link their ideas back to lived experiences, such as a time they were injured, a relevant family member, or they may use their imagination just as Sam did in the book. Finally children illustrate their page to match their dictated writing. Collate the pages in a display folder to create a share book for the children and families to read through, promoting early literacy through repetition and matching illustrations to text.

What Happened to Our Toy?

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