Winnie the Pooh Day: Incorporating Literacy with STEM
My son often brings me our big yellow copy of Winnie the Pooh that he got as a present. He loves when I read it to him. He requests his favorite chapters over and over again such as when Pooh discovers the North Pole or when Pooh pretends to be a rain cloud to get some honey. Not only does he quote from the book, but he uses the advanced vocabulary in in such as “provisions” in his regular conversations. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we should have a “Winnie-the-Pooh Day.”
Audience
“Winnie-the-Pooh Day” is the perfect activity for stay-at-home moms who love reading to their kids, homeschoolers (preschool through elementary) or a field trip for a preschool or kindergarten class. There are a lot of ways to integrate STEM activities that can be leveled to various ages. My son is 3.5, so my activities focus more on the preschool crowd. However, in this post I give some ideas how to level the activities up for older kids.
Check your states standards for alignment, but these activities can hit science, social studies, engineering and STEM standards in Kindergarten through Grade 5.
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Winnie the Pooh Day
I chose a beautiful fall day right when the leaves were almost in full peak. We headed to one of our awesome local wooded parks. I specifically chose one that had a large natural play area and some short but fun hiking paths.
Advanced Preparation
Before beginning I gathered some supplies. From the library I checked out two books about honey and one book about the North Pole. I also packed our provisions (aka lunch). Additionally, I packed a compass, paper and markers for the North Pole sign, our Winnie the Pooh and Piglet stuffies, helium balloons, string, scissors, and of course our provisions.
Activities
Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees
In the book Pooh tries to get honey from the tree by borrowing a blue balloon from Christopher Robin. He uses the balloon to help elevate him near the hive. He proceeds to pretend to be a little black rain cloud in order to deceive the bees. To further the deception, he has Christopher Robin walk below him saying “Tut, tut, it looks like rain.”
So we tried to enact this activity the best we could. I brought some string, 10 helium balloons, our Pooh stuffie, an umbrella, and books about honey. I planned on give this activity a STEM twist by exploring how many balloons it would take to lift our Pooh stuffie in the air. Then we were going to read books about honey. Unfortunately, this activity was a fail. Apparently, it takes more than 10 balloons to lift our Pooh bear. Then we tried our Piglet stuffie and were a little closer to lifting him off the ground, but we were still not quite there. It was completely, my fault! I should have done the math first—lesson learned. But my son still had fun, and I was able to salvage the lesson by trying to lift up smaller stuffies at home. I asked him how he could tell if they were heavier or lighter than a previous stuffie. and he was able to answer the question giving age-appropriate answers. At the dinner table my husband also had a nice discussion about how helium weighs less than air. Instead of reading the books about honey at the park, we ended up reading the books about honey at home, but that worked out fine.
STEM Connections
Physical Science: For younger kids, it’s sufficient just to have them do the experiment and discuss the concepts of heavy/light. Ask them which stuffie is heavier/lighter and “How do you know?” If you have older kids, you could have them calculate how many balloons they think it would take to make Pooh Bear float.
Life Science: Discuss how honey is made. We got two age appropriate books from the library to help us learn about the process of making honey. The books we used were What’s for Lunch? Honey by Pam Robson and From Flower to Honey by Penelope S. Nelson. Older kids could use more advanced books. My son made the suggestion that we should have made bees as well, which we could have done if I had planned ahead.
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Eeyore’s House
In the A.A. Milne’s book, Pooh and Piglet try to make Eeyore a house. Unfortunately, they used the sticks from his old house.
We visited a park with a natural playground which was perfect for making Eeyore a new house. Since my son is in preschool, I felt just the experience of building was enough. If you have older kids, you could add the engineering design process before they start. It was fun to see my son build the house. He would actually hold Pooh and Piglet up and have them pretend to lift the sticks.
The North Pole
Christopher Robin and the animals go on an expedition (or “expotition” according to Pooh) to find the North Pole. Christopher Robin tells them that an expedition is when you try to discover something with others and everyone goes forth in a straight line. We enacted this by putting Pooh and Piglet in our backpack and taking a hike.
STEM Connections
Geography/ Life Science Connection: When my son was getting bored and tired from the hike, we stopped and did our activity. I showed him how to use the compass to find North and we walked as far as we could in that direction before the path turned. Although, Christopher Robin doesn’t understand the poles (he thinks there are four of them), I’ve been explaining to my son that there are only two poles: North and South. This pause allowed us to sit, get a drink of water and read him a book about the North/South poles. Then we had Pooh discover the North Pole and make a sign.
We read the book North Pole, South Pole by Jen Szymanski which was perfect nonfiction for the preschool aged kid. You could level this up for older kids by getting more advanced books and focusing on connecting concepts such as tilt of the earth with the poles etc. Additionally older kids could do a lot more work with navigating with a compass and discussing how the North Pole has a magnetic field.
Note: Depending on your state, the science concepts of pulls and magnets and maps may align with the science standards in Grades 2 through 5.
The Provisions
In the North Pole Expedition, Christopher Robin tells everyone to pack provisions. So we did too! Although, we didn’t eat them on our hike, we did pack all Pooh’s favorite foods: honey, marmalade, sweet and condensed milk, and bread (croissants). Don’t worry we found some “haycorns” for Piglet as well. I did sneak in a few other healthier lunch options after we ate our provisions.
Pooh Sticks
What would a day in the “Hundred Acre Woods” be without a rousing game of Pooh Sticks? Pooh Sticks is where two or more people each throw a stick on one side of the bridge and then they rush to the other side to see whose stick comes out from underneath the bridge first. You can modify this game to be “Pooh Leaves” or “Pooh Acorns” as well. If your child is smaller, it’s a good opportunity to talk about what things sink or float. If they are older, you can talk about strategy such as what kind of stick to use and where to throw it. Make sure to ask your kids “why?” so they can explain their reasoning.
Extensions
After a fun day in the woods, we were both tired. Therefore, I let him watch a Winnie the Pooh movie. Watching a movie is always a treat for him because he doesn’t get a lot of screen time.
At the dollar store getting balloons, we serendipitously found a Winnie the Pooh and Friends coloring book which added to our theme day.
A few days later, I found the book Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick. This is such a fun and inspiring read. It tells the true story of how Christopher Robin met a real bear named Winnie who lived at the London Zoo and therefore changed his stuffed bear’s name from Edward bear to Winnie-the-Pooh. I would definitely recommend reading this book on your “Winnie the Pooh Day”!
Pretend Play
“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” ~A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
One of my favorite parts of the day was watching my son using pretend play. The animals really came alive for him. He literally had his Winnie the Pooh and Piglet stuffies help make Eeyore’s house and discover the North Pole and play Pooh Sticks. I had to be the voices to help liven things up. It was so fun seeing his imagination as the pretend play became real for him.
Making Memories
Of course, the best part of the day is making memories with my son. I got to enter his imaginative world. Instead of keeping it indoors, we got to take it outside for a real adventure! I hope that he always remembers Winnie the Pooh Day and the time we shared together.
Coming Spring 2026: Ladder Learns to Pray
I’m writing a book for young boys that helps parents teach their children to pray. The book features topics and illustrations that appeal to boys: trucks! See the sneak peak of the illustration above. To read the latest updates read my recent blog post: Ladder Learns to Pray: Preorders and Sneak Peaks/
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Share and Subscribe
For more fun literature themed STEM activities be sure to subscribe to my blog. Share it with some of your mom friends and make it a play-date! Or take your preschool class on a field trip to the woods!
Another fun filled blog by Annie filled with interesting facts and stories. A great educational tool.