All ready, teddy go for kids

Smiling faces were hard to miss when children from the Albany Community Kindergarten paraded their homemade teddy bears down York Street on Thursday.

Each year the class of four-year-old students design and create their teddy bears.

The bears are nearly as big as the children and the Teddy Bear Walk is a big learning experience for the town’s young locals.

Teacher-in-charge Karen Marshall said the tradition began in 2011, and hundreds of children had since made the toys.

“The best thing about our Teddy Bear Walk is the feeling of love and happiness that goes with us as we walk around town with the bears and experience the looks and lovely comments from passersby who think our kindy kids look so cute,” she said.

“I regularly bump into parents or children around town who say they still have the bear they made at kindergarten years ago.

“Our Teddy Bear Walk is a celebration of lots of dedicated work from the children, staff and families — drawing, creating clothing and patterns, painting, sewing, stuffing. “It’s wonderful for the kids to have a chance to show off their finished bear to the public.”

The walk included a visit to the town library, posting letters to Santa Claus at the post office, eating ice-creams at Dylans on the Terrace and a tour of the Museum of the Great Southern.

The teddy bears will go for another walk, this time in front of a crowd, during the Albany Christmas Pageant.