Teddy’s day and night

From the house

• A lamp, or a flashlight standing on a pile of books
• A teddy or doll
• A dim room

How to play

1. Switch on the light and dim the room: “This is the Sun.” They are Earth, holding teddy against their tummy.
2. Face the light: “Teddy can see the Sun. It’s daytime. Wake up, teddy!”
3. Turn slowly until their back is to the light: “Now teddy’s side is dark. It’s night. Shh, sleep.”
4. Keep turning slowly, day, night, day, night, waking teddy up and putting teddy to sleep each time.

Fit it to your child

• Easier: You turn teddy toward and away from the light while they call out “day” or “night”.
• Harder: Hold a second toy against their back: when it’s day for teddy, it’s night for the other toy.

Words to use

• Sun
• day
• night
• light
• dark
• turn

Why it helps

Turning toward and away from the light shows them that it’s day when our side of Earth faces the Sun, and night when it faces away.