JULY 10th is Teddy Bear Picnic Day!
The Teddy bears picnic as most of you will know is a popular children’s song which is now over 100 years old as a piece of music.
It remains popular to this day with very young children and I’m sure many of you will remember it from your own childhood.
Food ideas:
- Sandwiches/Bagels/Croissants
- Cold chicken drumsticks/pizza
- Mini quiches
- Fruit/Veggies, cut up into bite size pieces
- Cheese and crackers
- Pepperoni sticks
- Cupcakes/Brownies/Cookies/Mini Pies
- Water with berries in it/juice/milk
- 1 doughnut with 2 timbits for ears can look a lot like a teddy bear head
This book is full of great picnic basket ideas
https://www.myfussyeater.com/25-of-the-best-picnic-food-ideas-for-kids/
Craft ideas:
Using what’s available in your house or you may need to get a few things from the store.
Paper, pencils, crayons, markers, stickers, paint or pastels.
- Invitations to be made to each of the teddy bear/stuffies to be invited
- Name cards, designed, cut out and names written on them
- Hopscotch drawn with chalk or made with paper in both human size and teddy bear size
- Make your own teddy bear https://www.instructables.com/id/Teddy-Bear-tutorial-and-pattern/
- Or create some paper picnic friends with the cut out below
- If having your picnic inside, then making some paper flowers would be lovely
- Making headbands with teddy bear ears, could be fun for all of the humans at the picnic
- Decorate paper cups and plates for the picnic
Book ideas:
Already on your shelf, get it from the library or borrow it from a friend.
Classroom ideas:
This section will be back in September xo
Mindful Minutes:
Time spent together doing something that acknowledges the day.
If you were to take a few mindful minutes today, I’m certain you could find a way to make your children smile, using Teddy Bear’s picnic day as your inspiration.
- Maybe just sitting teddy bears/stuffies in the dinner table chairs. One things for sure, it would spark a different conversation than last night!
- You could talk about invitations and being invited, are there feelings about either that they’d like to share.
- What are some of the fun things about picnics? When could you plan one together? What would you need? Decide as a family, encourage input from everyone. It can be as complicated as home cooking all of the things in the picnic basket or as simple as purchased fish and chips at the beach.
- Do they have a favourite teddy bear/stuffie? Ask them why?
- If they were taking one of them on a picnic, which one would it be and why?
- Recite this poem before the hop into bed
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, reach up high,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the sky,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, bend down low,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your toes,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go to bed,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, rest your head,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the lights,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say “good night”.
Doing fun things with our children creates a deeper connection with them.
With deeper connection we create opportunities to talk, to laugh & to be seen experiencing joy, which is so important! Love, Stacey
Putting PLAY into Parenting