Having a Teddy Bear Picnic is almost as fun as having a special event like I talked about in the last post. When you add different themes into your curriculum the student are then more excited to learn about what is going to happen during the day. At preschool when we have a Teddy Bear Picnic we tie many fun activities into the day. We start out by playing with toys and activities that centered around or deal with teddy bears. The students are invited to being their very own stuffed teddy bear to school that day and a great big picnic blanket is laid out for the students to sit around during group time. A great CD to listen to is by The Teddy Bear Band called "Teddy Bear Picnic". There are many action songs on this CD that the children can take part in with their teddy bear. During our Teddy Bear Picnic we always enjoy making butter out of wiped cream with the students to have on their biscuits along with honey. While the children shake the wiped cream we listen to the sounds it makes and talk about the different stages the wiped cream goes through before it turns into butter. As the students take turns shaking the wiped cream we listen to the book that I have pictured "The Teddy Bears' Picnic". Having a Teddy Bear Picnic is just one example of how you can take a book and turn it into a theme for the day in your classroom. So find a book that you love and turn it into the theme of the day by adding activities that collaborate with the book!
