TEDDY BEAR PICNIC:
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SPECIAL DAYS:
TEDDY BEAR PICNIC:
*From
Stormie:
{Of course, "Teddy Grahams Graham
Snacks" are a must for nibbling on this day! Since it's a special day, just
leave a bowl of them out.}
Reminders of old favorite things to do:
*Sing "The Bear Went Over the Mountain."
*Read
"Goldilocks and the Three Bears."
*Recite the
rhyme "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See" using flannelboard cutouts
of the animals mentioned in the rhyme.
*For art, instead
of sprinkling sand on bear cutouts, substitute coffee grounds, sawdust, white
or brown coconut, or even cinnamon.
Special Easel Project: Allow children to choose a type of bear to paint at the easel based on magazine pictures you've provided (brown bear, polar bear, black bear, panda bear, grizzly bear, etc). Make sure you have mixed paints in colors as close as possible to the bear colors. Provide large bear cutouts for the paintings.
Creative Art: Provide collage materials for children to create their own bears.
Snacks
Creative Bear Faces: Provide
round crackers or breads, spreads (cream cheese or peanut butter -- if
no allergies), and fruit or vegetable rounds and allow children
to create their own bear faces.
Cinnamon Bears: Allow children to
cut bread into bear shapes using cookie cutters. Toast them. Children
can then spread on a little margarine and sprinkle on a sugar/cinnamon mix.
(Or, use honey.)
I hope to create more "Teddy Bear/Picnic" activities for you over time, but my very favorite ideas have been reserved for my "SUMMER THINGS" booklet (see the "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers" section of my website).
*From
Denise Gerstberger, Building Blocks Preschool:
Stormie,
Some of the things I do for our "Teddy Bear Picnic" day are:
1.
Eat bread and honey on old tablecloths on the floor
2.
Dance with our bears to the song "Teddy Bears Picnic" (The
cassette tape I used doesn't have the author listed. It is a 1976 copyright
by RCA Records at 1133 Ave. of the Americas, N.Y. New York 10036 and the title
of the tape is Puff The Magic Dragon/Teddy Bears' Picnic and other favorites.
The songs are sung by The Richard Wolfe Children's Chorus.)
3.
Make jointed (with brass brads) paper bears
4.
Make cupcakes with teddy grahams on top and little paper umbrellas stuck into
the top (the kind you can get from Oriental Trading Co.)
5.
Send invitations home to "our teddies" inviting them to visit preschool
*From
Susan Wray, Library Storytime Leader, Dyersburg, Tennessee:
For my "Bears" theme at the library, I read "We're
Going on a Bear Hunt," retold by Michael Rosen; illustrated by Helen Oxenbury.
We also do the familiar "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around."
And finally, we follow paper bear paws around the library stacks and under tables
to eventually find a large stuffed bear.
*From
Amber:
Teddy Bears In the Sand: Stormie,
because May is also the time that we review colors in our classroom, I combine
that concept with Teddy Bear week: At the beginning of the week, I hide all my
teddy bear counters in our indoor sandbox. Then, for each day of the
week, I instruct the children to find a different color teddy bear. During
our morning group time, I tell them, "Today, I want you to find all the red
teddy bears in the sand." Then, on Tuesday, I instruct them to
find another color, and so on throughout the week.
*I
absolutely love this fantastic idea from Mike in New Zealand that combines
music, creative drama, dance, positional prepositions, and language:
Set up a tunnel covered with blankets and cushions to represent a mountain
with a tunnel through it. Have children sit around the mountain but with
enough space for walking around it as well. Place an arrow at the entrance
end. Sing the following song using each child's name. Tell the
children to pretend to look for something while in the tunnel.
The Bear Goes Through the Mountain
(Tune:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain)
(Child's name)
goes through the mountain
(Child's name) goes through the mountain
(Child's name) goes through the mountain
To see what he could
see.
When the child comes out the other end ask him/her what s/he
saw and what it was doing.
Variety/Extension: Introduce technology
to the children by handing them a microphone when they come out of the tunnel.
(Children love using the microphone.) After the child has told everyone
what s/he saw, invite the group to dance around the mountain pretending to be
what the child saw.
Favorite Books:
From
Stormie:
*
Beady Bear, by
Don Freeman: This
is a darling story about Thayer's toy bear who finds out that bears are supposed
to live in caves. So, he sets out to find a cave of his own only to discover
that life was better at Thayer's house.
*
The Big Brown Bear, Written by Georges Duplaix; Pictures by Gustaf Tenggren:
A bear goes off to catch fish for dinner but
can't resist reaching into a hive for some honey along the way. The swarm
of bees who own the hive teach him a lesson he doesn't soon forget.
*Good Job, Little Bear, by Martin
Waddell; illustrated by Barbara Firth: In
this animal "father/son" story, Big Bear encourages Little Bear as he discovers
the woods around him.
*The
Biggest Bear, by Lynd Kendall Ward: Johnny brings home a cute little
bear cub that gets into trouble as he grows bigger. By the way, this is
a Caldecott Medal winner for "best illustrated."
*Can't
You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell and Barbara Firth (Illustrator):
Little Bear is afraid of the dark but Big Bear helps him through it.
*Big
Panda, Little Panda, by Joan Stimson; Meg Rutherford (Illustrator):
Little Panda feels insecure when Mom brings a new baby panda into the home.
*Donna
King, from Roxboro, North Carolina, sends us these words about one of her
favorite books:
Corduroy, Written
and Illustrated by Don Freeman: This is about
a bear who is looking for his lost button in the department store where he lives--until
something wonderful happens to him one day!
SPORTS
DAY:
*From
Stormie:
This is a special day devoted to being
physically active. My favorite ideas for setting it up have been reserved
for my "Gross Motor" booklet (see
the "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers" section of my website).
*From
Amie, in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania:
I'm
having a mini Olympics for a couple weeks. I will, of course, play fun gross
motor games with the children and have them dress in red, white, and blue as often
as possible. Special red, white,and blue treats will be provided.
And olympic awards will be given (bought from an educational/teacher store), and
I will make medals (circle-shaped piece of string glued on paper with glitter
on it). But I will also do related art projects:
Olympic
Rings: A ring of the children's handprints with a torch
Flags
From Around the World: Pictures of flags from around the world are provided
for the children to look at, then each child makes a different flag or an Olympics
collage.
*Extension:
Stormie's Art Ideas:
Sports
Equipment Collage: Children can look through and cut out sports equipment
pictures from sports magazines that are used in Olympic events (various kinds
of balls, floor mats, etc) and glue them on an Olympic torch shaped piece of paper.
Moving Body Parts: Have children cut pictures
from magazines (or better yet, draw their own versions) of body parts that move
or that have joints enabling us to move (arms, legs, head, etc).
Do
Foot Painting (a body part used in an Olympics)
LEMONADE
SALE:
From
Stormie:
My
very favorite way to have a "preschooler" lemonade sale can be found in my
"SUMMER THINGS"
booklet (see the "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers" section
of my website).
MUDSY/SUDSY
DAY (Preschool Outdoors, Weather Permitting):
From
Stormie:
This is a day of pure fun! No academics!
Children wear bathing suits or old clothes that can get messy and wet. Make
sure each child brings a towel and change of clothing to school. Invite
parents too -- or not -- your choice. Set up various areas of the playground
where children can play in water. Options can include sink and float, soapy
water table play, a tub full of mud with all the accessories for making mud delicacies
(wet sand is ok too though), a children's pool closely
supervised, etc. Provide a sprinkler of some type for everyone
to run through as they please for cooling or cleaning off. You'll be on
the playground already, so the day will include all the usual play options (swings,
ladder/slide, etc).
Variation: Have a totally Creative Art Day (and clean out your storage shelves at the same time). Put out all kinds of collage and painting projects that children can do with very little supervision (marble painting, golf ball painting, feather painting, easel painting, paper collages, cardboard collages, ribbon collages). Still add the sprinkler fun as mentioned above though.
*From
Elly Lampner
Bungee
Painting: Place 1/4 cup sand in old pairs of knee high panty hose. Place
a large piece of paper on the sidewalk (butcher paper would work nicely). Have
children dip the "fat" part of the knee highs into tempera paint and
then bounce their "bungees" on the paper to make prints. (Provide
several colors of paint.)
You can use cat litter instead of sand.
Actually, it makes a different type of print than sand.
------------------
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from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom
ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you
can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here
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