How to Plan a Teddy Bears' Picnic for Children
A Fun Rainy Day Activity for Young Children and Their Teddies
Aug 10, 2008
The original Teddy Bears’ Picnic song was written as an instrumental in 1907 by John Walter Bratton. Several years later, lyrics were added by Jimmy Kennedy, resulting in a song that remains familiar more than 100 years after it was originally composed. Many children’s music CDs feature the song along with others that would be suitable for background music for the picnic.
Organising a picnic for children to enjoy with their teddy bears is simple and requires very little advanced preparation.
Picnic Snacks for Teddy Bears
No picnic is complete without snacks. Gummi-bear lollies and Arnott’s Tiny Teddy or Teddy Bear biscuits are particularly suitable. Make sure that there is also plenty of fruit and other healthy food to balance out the treats. Honey flavoured snacks are also suitable for the theme of the picnic.
To involve children in the snack preparation, bake some cookies or gingerbread in teddy bear shapes and allow children to help ice or decorated them. Cookies can also be cut in the shape of a T if using the picnic to reinforce a lesson plan relating to that letter.
Teddy Bears’ Picnic Activity Ideas
If the weather is fine, pack all the snacks and other picnic items into a hamper and take the picnic outside into the yard or a local park. Remember to pack a picnic blanket and to take along a teddy bear for each child.
Read some favourite teddy bear stories, such as Winnie-the-Pooh or any of the following:
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic [Lothian, 1999]: With pictures by Prue Theobalds and the original song lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy, this book is a lovely way to get children into the theme of the day.
Teddy Bears' Picnic Cookbook [Viking, 1991] by Abigail Darling and Alexandra Day: As the title suggests, this book contains recipes for a variety of snacks suitable for a teddy bears' picnic. There are several picnic themes covered with food suggestions for each and recipes that children can help prepare.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt [Walker Books, 1989] by Michael Rosen with Illustrations by Helen Oxenbury. This book uses lots of great actions for children to copy as a father and his children go searching for a bear. They splash splosh through the cold river, stumble trip through the dark forest and squelch squerch through the oozy mud. If there is time and a suitable location, an obstacle course can be set up for children to follow along on the bear hunt adventure.
The Bears' Picnic [Harper Collins, 1966] by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Featuring the ever popular Berenstain Bears, this story follows the bumbling Father Bear as he takes his long-suffering wife and children looking for the perfect picnic spot. With simple, rhyming text children will enjoy the comical misadventures of the Bear family.
Games such as hide-and-seek are always fun. Children can also make and then play a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey equivalent by colouring in a teddy bear shape as a group project and then cutting out and colouring in bow-ties to place on their bear.
Teddy Bear Picnic Fun
Having a Teddy Bears’ Picnic at home is a great way to fill in a morning with young children. It can also be used as a birthday party theme for preschoolers or as part of a preschool or kindergarten lesson plan for learning the letter T.
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