Cross-Curricular Connections
Winnie-the-Pooh can be adapted across the curriculum, depending on the age and the students’ interest levels, in areas such as science, poetry, math, grammar, history and social studies. In third grade, this unit can be used to reinforce the concept of ecosystems and habitats in science. Organisms live together and depend on one another and their natural resources for survival. Animals face natural disasters through “Terrible Floods”29 and through predators like, “Fierce [animals],”30 like “Heffalumps.”31 They learn that bees are an important pollinator for the honey that is enjoyed by Pooh with such relish. Students can connect Pooh’s efforts to get honey, which is too hard to get, with the current honey crisis termed “colony collapse,”32 as a result of which honey is becoming too expensive and hard to get. Students form a parallel between the real animal behaviors and the animals of Hundred Acre Wood, when they explore the California bears’ life cycle, their adaptations, and the impact that their environment can have on them.
Depending on the age and the interest level of the students, teachers can also introduce the historical significance of Winnie-the-Pooh. This character is based on a real American black bear, named Winnie, short for Winnipeg. During World War I, a veterinarian from the Canadian Army, Harry Colebourn, rescued the cub from a hunter at a train station. He named it Winnipeg after the hometown of his company. When their company was called to France, Colebourn had to leave Winnie at the London Zoo. The zookeepers trusted the gentle bear and let the children play with her. This is when Christopher Robin Milne, the author’s son (and one of the main characters in Winnie-the-Pooh) met the real Winnie. He became so fond of the bear that he renamed his teddy bear from Edward Bear to Winnie-the-Pooh.
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