Teddy Bear Picnic

In November I hosted a Teddy Bear Picnic at one of my library branches. The impetus of this program was the library's mascot (a huge stuffed bear named Walter) acquiring a picnic basket. The library assistant who looks after Walter asked me if we could have such an event. I though it was a great idea!


The kids were invited to bring a stuffed bear friend with them to the program. We started things off with the movement rhyme "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear." I modified it to include several fun actions. We read Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson. Then did a flannel board activity involving a bear, some bees, a beehive, and lots of bandages. (I'll be blogging about this soon for Flannel Friday.)

Then I read Don't Worry, Douglas! by David Melling and we went on a "Cool Bear Hunt" courtesy of Dr. Jean. The next book I shared was If You Were a Panda Bear by Wendell & Florence Minor. We then danced to the action song "Rockabye Your Bear" by The Wiggles. We did Blue Ted Said on the flannel board.

I read Bear and Bee by Sergio Ruzzier. We played a find the honey pot game with the flannel board (a honey pot hiding behind one of five bears). The last book I shared was About a Bear by Holly Surplice.

After the storytime portion of the event, we played two games: food toss into a picnic basket (I used my crocheted food props: peanut, cheese, donut, and carrot.) and Pin the Bee on the Bear.

After the games, we moved onto the craft portion of the program. I discovered this sleeping bear craft from Storytime Katie's blog via Pinterest. It looked simple enough to duplicate so I did.

We had a snack of goldfish crackers, cookies, and kool-aid. As the kids left, I invited them to browse ourt bear book display and take a packet of coloring sheets I printed from Elizabeth Dulemba's Coloring Page Tuesdays.

This event was very successful (we had 17 children attend--a fantastic attendance for that particular branch) and I look forward to using it at my other branches.