Choco Llama is a Kohair animal with a very soft feel

Stuffed animals can make great soft toys for children.  An age appropriate stuffed animal can be a great friend for a child.

There are several things to consider when looking for a plush animal that is soft and cuddly.  The first is the material used for stuffing. While “bean bag” animals which are normally stuffed with such materials as plastic pellets can be appealing, these may not be as soft and squeezable as a toy that has polyester filling only, for example.  The other consideration is the outside of the animal. Is it made of fabric, plush faux fur or some other material?  The softest types stuffed toys that I have encountered are a kohair line by Douglas.  These stuffed toys are extremely soft and cuddly on the surface. In fact, it’s almost a habit to keep running your hand over them if you are holding one.

If you are interested in a long haired animal, another option is to get one with faux fur. Some of these toy animals are very soft also. The floppy ones will normally be softer than the posable ones, so keep that in mind when looking for one that is truly soft and cuddly.

Christmas plush animals such as this reindeer are an obvious holiday choice.

The ultimate Christmas plush animals are reindeer since most people associate reindeer with Santa Claus and the delivery of Christmas presents. Plush reindeer can vary from the somewhat realistic ones, perhaps with a harness for pulling Santa’s sleigh, to the  more whimsical reindeer with such accessories as scarves or mittens.

Although reindeer can be a good choice as a Christmas plush animal, there are also other animal options available.  Animals that were not previously considered to be a “Christmas” animal can be made that way by the addition of accessories such as Christmas themed sweaters, Christmas stockings, scarves and more. There are many more options that the traditional Christmas items, so have fun with choosing your favorite plush animal with an added Christmas flair.

Swoop the Bat is an example of a Halloween stuffed animal

There are several plush animals that are just right for Halloween.  Halloween plush  animals include black cats, a variety of spiders, and bats.

You can frequently find black cats that are decorated with Halloween accessories such as a witch’s hat or with the orange colors of Halloween as accessories. Creepy plush spiders come in different varieties from small spiders to larger ones such as plush tarantulas.  Plush bats many times come with some type of string so that you could hang them to make it appear as if they are really flying.

Halloween plush animals are perfect as gifts for children for the Halloween holiday or perhaps to accompany a Halloween costume. They also make really nice decorations for a Halloween scene or party and can also be used as centerpieces for a Halloween party table.

Holiday themed stuffed animals come in a variety of animal types and designs and provide an alternative gift to the teddy bear that was once the only stuffed animal option.  Specifically themed holiday stuffed animals are available for such holidays as Valentine’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas and contain either decorative elements or messages related to the holiday.

Holiday Stuffed Animals as Decorative Elements

Holiday stuffed animals can add a fun and decorative element to a room. Well placed reindeer at Christmas  or bunnies at Easter can set the tone of the holiday and delight children and adults alike. You can also incorporate a stuffed animal into a decorative table centerpiece  for an instant holiday theme, perhaps combined with flowers, plants, ribbon or other materials.

Holiday Stuffed Animals as Gifts

Holiday themed stuffed animals make great gifts for the holiday season.  Stuffed animals are not only for children either. Valentine’s Day stuffed animals are very popular messengers of loving feelings on February 14th of each year, and Easter themed animals such as Easter bunnies, ducks or chicks make a great addition to an Easter basket.  Plush animals can be a nice way to let others know that you are thinking about them.

A stuffed animal can help to calm the fears of a child whose world has just been torn apart.  The stuffed animal becomes a real friend in the emergency situation by giving the child something else to focus on and to hold on to during the crisis.

Many fire departments, police departments, ambulance services, battered women’s shelters, etc. have such a program in place and regularly collect teddy bears and other types of stuffed animals for emergency use.   If you are interested in donating stuffed animals to such a cause, you can contact these types of organizations in your local community.  If such a program doesn’t exist, you might want to start one.

A stuffed animals for emergencies drive can be conducted throughout the community by publicizing it in the local newspaper and perhaps by leaving donation boxes at local businesses and schools.  Clubs or schools may be interested in making this a project for the benefit of the community.

If you are able to donate a stuffed animal for emergency use or to start a program for collecting emergency stuffed animals, you will greatly assist a child in need.

If there isn’t a service available in your area, kits are sometimes available that will allow you to prepare your own stuffed animal party.

If you do not want to have a stuffed animal party where the children actually assemble the stuffed animal there, you might still purchase a stuffed animal for each child at the party and let the stuffed animals join right in with the party.  A fun idea is to wrap each stuffed animal in brightly colored paper and let each child draw a number from a box to see who chooses his stuffed animal first.  Then let the child choose a stuffed animal from the group of packages. Be sure to include a variety of kinds of stuffed animals.

The koala is one of the most recognizable animals of Australia

You can find Australian stuffed animals to represent the diverse population of wildlife that inhabits the Australian continent.  Australian animals include such animals as  the koala, the kangaroo, the dingo, the emu, the echidna, the wombat, the tasmanian devil, the crocodile and the platypus to name a few.

Australian stuffed animals can be used in a variety of ways:

Collectible Animals – Many people collect stuffed animals from a certain region of the world, and Australian animals would be a excellent place to start.

Education- A nice classroom idea would be to have a collection of Australian stuffed animals around the room. The children could then learn about each of the animals throughout the year, and they would gain a good understanding of which animals come from Australia. Throw in a few episodes of The Crocodile Hunter or Bindi the Jungle Girl for an additional Austrlian wildlife educational adventure!

Decoration – One decorating idea would be to design a room or a house with Australian decor.  You could include Australia stuffed animals, signs pointing to different locations in Australia, a map of Australia, a wall clock set to Australia time and pictures of the Australian outback that coordinate with the room colors. Use your imagination.

If you would like additional information about Australia’s animals, visit Australian Animal Learning Zone and Australia Zoo

We thought that it would be fun to have visitors share about their childhood stuffed animal.  Maybe it was a special teddy bear that was so well loved that the eyes, nose and fur all fell off or maybe it was a different type of stuffed animal.  Do you still have the animal in the closet somewhere or what happened to it?  Tell us about your childhood stuffed animals by leaving a comment!

My childhood stuffed animal was……

A classroom stuffed animal such as this polar bear can be a special education treat for the children.

Classroom stuffed animals can be a wonderful idea.  Stuffed animals can help to teach the children about different kinds of animals as well as teach other skills as well.

Sometimes a teacher will choose a specific animal as the classroom mascot for a whole year, and the children will decorate and do activities around the theme of that animal.  There are almost endless possibilities for classroom learning surrounding a stuffed animal.

An obvious idea is to have the children learn everything about their classroom stuffed animal by watching video, doing a coloring page, writing a fiction story about the animal, writing a report or reports about the various aspects of the animal or perhaps learning about the habitat of that animal as well.  

It is often a good idea to choose a wild animal for the classroom animal, but a teacher may also choose a dog or cat and teach the children about responsible pet ownership and about adopting an animal from a shelter.  Perhaps the children could vote on which animal they wish to adopt as their classroom animal for the year.

Another idea is to have a classroom stuffed animal that the children take home with them on a rotating basis.  I have heard of cases where the stuffed animal has a journal of his activities, and the children add to the journal daily with both classroom activities of the animal and with pictures or activities from when the animal goes home with each child.  Children will love to look back over a journal as the year progresses to see the stories, artwork and general history of their special classroom stuffed animals.

With a little imagination and a lot of fun, a classoom stuffed animal can be a memorable friend that will give each child a memory for a lifetime. I will guarantee that each child will remember this experience well beyond their school years.

If your class has done this, be sure to leave a comment about your experiences and any tips that may help another teacher to implement this idea!

Shep is one of the Aurora Stuffed Animals

Aurora stuffed animals are  widely available throughout the United States and the world.   They began back in 1987 under the name of Aurora Trading Inc and quickly began to spread throughout the world with their manufacturing and sales activities. In 1992, they had their first sales network in the United States, and they are now known as Aurora World Inc.

There is a wide variety of Aurora stuffed animals and Aurora puppets from the whimsical to the realistic stuffed animal.   In the Aurora product line, you can find dogs and cats as well as a very large assortment of wildlife plush items, and they even have a line of  teddy bears in assorted shapes and sizes. 

Aurora  made headlines in 2008 when it announced  the release of the world’s first “green” plush line called “Aurora Naturally.”  This is a plush line that is made of soybeans on the exterior and is stuffed with the a sustainable rainforest crop called kapok on the inside.

Aurora stuffed animal toys meet or exceed the requirements set by CPSIA (United States) and EN71 (EU) for safety standards and make safety a priority in the production of their stuffed toys.