Teddy Bear Picnic  compilation

Books:
Teddy Bear Picnic - Jimmy Kennedy
Berenstein Bears has a book called the Berenstein Bear's  Picnic Goldilocks and the three bears

For some craft  ideas:
get wood cut  bears at the craft store.  The girls can use markers or crayons to color  them so you won't have messy paint. A little glue for wiggly eyes and a  magnet strip for the back.
Have them each make a place mat for their picnic.   Take white construction paper - 9x12 and have them make a colorful place  mat.  Cover with contact paper and they have a place mat to take home and  use. 

Have older girls write a cute short story about bears going  on a picnic and put it on for the younger girls at the event.

Relay races  - use baskets; get plastic food, place mats, tablecloths plastic silverware; and  have races or make up games using the above items.  The first group to set  their table for the picnic lunch or "hunting" for food - the first group to  collect one of everything on their list!
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Our troop has a  teddy bear tea every year and this is what we do:
Upon arrival,  we introduce our teddy bears:  their names, where we got them,
something  special about them. We serve a variety of herbal teas and two different  type of homemade teddy bear cookies

While sipping and munching (pinkies out please!), We tell the teddy bear stories.

We then sit and sing Christmas Carols as this always falls the first week or two of December. 
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For the last 3 years my daughter's Senior Girl  Scout troop has done the Teddy Bear Picnic for our Service Unit. This event is  for Daisy and first grade Brownie Girl Scouts. It is intended to be the first  event for the Daisy Girl Scout troops to get them going. We usually have it in  the very beginning of October. The girls have this event down to an art from  trial and error. At our last Teddy Bear Picnic there were about 50 Daisy and  first grade Brownie Girl Scouts.

We start with a Teddy Bear Parade lead  by Miss Teddy Bear while playing "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" song. One of our  troop members in a great Teddy Bear costume from a local costume shop leads the  parade. We have 4 stations that are 20 minutes each.

Station 1:  Picture of them with their Teddy Bear using a Polaroid camera and decorating a  picture frame. Picture frame is made out of popsicle sticks. The girls decorate  them with jewels, sequins and glitter glue.

Station 2: Game-"Mr.. Bear"  from Brownie GS Handbook pg. 131.

Station 3: Craft-Bear Mask. Make sure  you have lots of brown crayons or markers!

Station 4: Story, bookmark  & snack - "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" song arranged and performed by Jerry  Garcia & David Grisman, illustrated by Bruce Whatley. This book came with  the tape that we played for the parade. The snack is Teddy Grahams, of course!  They also color a bookmark.

Then we get everyone together for a bear  sing-a-long. We end with a Friendship Circle and Brownie Smile  Song.
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We had a Teddy Bear Picnic when the girls were in  Brownies (decided not to call it a "tea" because we were serving lemonade lol!).  We did a Teddy Bear craft with pom poms and a wooden candle cup painted yellow  and used as a honey pot. We had a first aid station where the goal was to  teach a little first aid, but the girls enjoyed putting bandages, splints,  slings, etc. on
their bears (hopefully still learning a little too). We had a  station where we did relay races... putting all the bears into a laundry basket  and running up, finding your bear and running back. Another with tossing the  bears into the baskets. We did a pin the tail on the donkey type of game  with a big bear head and the girls put the features on the bear. Snack was Teddy  Grahams.
Other ideas for snacks were making sugar cookies in bear shapes and  letting the girls decorate them with frosting, and we also had thought about  cutting thin brownies into the shapes of bears with the cookie cutters. We were  trying to think of something we could do with honey, but never explored that  idea any further. At the end, all the girls got together and we taught them the 
Teddy Bear Picnic song, going over it a couple of times. Then we had one of  those big parachutes and popped the bears around in it a bit and did a few parachute kinds of games.
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I would like to take a few  moments to share with you our latest event.  On Saturday we had  a Mother/ Daughter Teddy Bear Tea and we received an overwhelming response with  this one.  We received applications from 63 girls, bringing with them 46  mothers and they all seemed to have a wonderful time.  We held the event in  the cafeteria area of a school in our SU and it
looked great with the round  tables and blue and yellow balloons (that is all it took in the decoration  department).  The girls filled the cafeteria after they checked in and  everyone was excited to start.  We had copied off the words to the song  "Teddy Bear Picnic", but they were lost in the shuffle and so we just started  with the activity.  We were able to purchase some unstuffed bear bodies  from a local company called The Critter Mine.  They were beautiful
creamy  white bears with the tips of the fur a golden color.  We gave each of the  girls a ziploc bag of stuffing, a birth certificate (made on the PC), and a little slip of paper to fill out and place inside of the bear.  After the  girls finished stuffing the bears, we played a few games of themed bingo, called "BEARS" instead of bingo.  One of the ladies made custom bingo cards and  cut
out little paper bears to use as markers.  After bingo the moms and daughters enjoyed a little treat (brownies, cupcakes, cheesecakes or  strawberries) and some punch.  We finished up with a drawing for a  decorated bear cake made by my mother-in-law and then said goodbye to  everyone.  It was short (2 hrs.) and sweet and everyone seemed to have a  wonderful time.  I really recommend this type of event, especially for the  Daisy and Brownie aged girls.
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How about a special GORP mix with Teddy  Graham's and gummi bears in it?

Make bracelets or necklaces with Teddy  Bear pony beads (BJ's crafts -on-line).

Play a game of Teddy-Teddy-Bear  (Duck-Duck-Goose) or a game of Mr. Bear (in Brownie Handbooks).

Read a  bear-themed story - Paddington and Winnie the Pooh may be too long, but my  daughter loved "What to Wear Jessie Bear" at that age.

Show a Winnie the  Pooh video.

Buy some bear-sized shirts and decorate them with fabric  stamps or decorate a tote to carry their bear around in.

www.Crayola.com  and  www.dltk.com  both have bear-themed activities.

Have a cake baked in the shape  of a bear (Wilton makes a pan) or decorated with a Teddy Bear  theme.

Decorate a backdrop and take pictures of the girl and her  bear.

Have girls bring a stuffed toy to donate to a hospital or charity -  so that others can have as much fun!
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The little sweeties brought their own  bear and a teacup. We had a story corner, played "hot potato" with Julie - our  Service unit's traveling bear (she visits troops along with a journal - we just  happened to have her this month), we had a coloring corner, teddy relays and a  parachute to pop all those teddies high in the sky! Then we had a "tea party"  with apple juice and trefoils.  Too much fun!
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The  event is set up in stations.  The stations include an adoption station, a  teddy bear check up station, acraft station with a teddy bear or fairy tale themed craft (we do wands a lot), a snack and story time station, a game station  with teddy bear themed games (teddy bear says, follow the teddy bear etc.), and  a photo station where we have a Polaroid camera and take photos of the girls  with there teddy bears.  They also make a frame with a magnet on the back  to hang their picture in.  The good thing about this event is older girls  can run it (Juniors and up) and you can advertise to your local schools to have  girls come to join the fun.
 

We have hosted a Daisy/Brownie Teddy Bear Tea  Party with cookies & punch, pictures with their Teddy, decorate a  frame,  songs & hokey pokey.  Older girls put on a skit and help  plan the activities, makesure to have back up songs.  Prior to the event,  my troop worked on the Manners Try-it and made bead bracelets to  wear.
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Painting tea cups
Another Tea  Party idea that my Brownies enjoyed the 3 years I was a Brownie
leader was  painting teacups. The Brownie  troop I inherited had a tradition of a Mother/Daughter Tea (or Babysitter,Grandmother,etc). 

I  discovered that one of Juliette Gordon Low's hobbies was painting china.
Anyway  I purchased inexpensive cups and saucers from a restaurant supply house
and  Porcelaine 150 paint from a craft store. 

The paint  only becomes permanent when baked in a home oven. Then it is useable and  washable. But until then it can be removed with alcohol on a cotton ball if the  girl is not satisfied with her design. The paint can be applied with brushes or  stamps. An important thing to know is that the paint will not come out of  clothes!
The girls  painted their cups and leaders took them home to bake. We took them back for our  tea and the girls presented them to their special guests filled with Hershey  kisses. They were very proud of their creations. The paint is a little  expensive, but a little goes a long way and we had leftovers for the next year. 

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Teddy Bear Tea Party  websites
http://www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/teddybears.htm  

http://www.angelfire.com/fl/preschoolfunzone/teddybear.html

http://www.teatrail.co.uk/tt/parties/bears.html

http://www.coe.iup.edu/worldofkindergarten/B/bearso.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_18146_teddy-bear-picnic.html

WORDS TO THE TEDDY BEAR'S PICNIC SONG

If you go out in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.
 

CHORUS
Picnic time for teddy bears,
The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today.
Watch them, catch them unawares,
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily dance about.
They love to play and shout.
And never have any cares.
At six o'clock their mommies and daddies
Will take them home to bed
Because they're tired little teddy bears.

If you go out in the woods today,
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely out in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic

CHORUS

Every teddy bear, that's been good
Is sure of a treat today
There's lots of wonderful things to eat
And wonderful games to play

Beneath the trees, where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic

CHORUS
 

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