Paddington Bear Picnic

We held a Paddington Bear Picnic last night in honor of the new movie being released – Paddington coming to theatres this year.  With 12 young kids, in grades Kindergarten – 2nd grade in attendance we had a great picnic!  The kids also brought their own adorable teddies to share in this event.

Program Plan

We began by sitting down on a blanket on the floor for our snack. It was an adorable bear made with a slice of wheat bread, some honey, a few slices of strategically placed bananas and a few raisins!  I was honestly shocked by how many kids didn’t eat any part of it!  I thought it would be a surefire hit – and fairly healthy besides!  During our snack I read a few pages from the book the movie is based on A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, which was originally published, I believe, in 1958.

After we had our snack, we set our bears down to watch us create a very fun polar bear craft!  We used homemade puffy paint (equal parts white glue and shaving cream) to create a polar bear. And homemade “snow” paint (white poster paint and sand) to create a cute polar bear scene.  I found this cute craft on The Crafty Classroom (with directions for paint and a template for the bear!)

After we finished painting our bears, we spent some time dancing with our bears. I used the Wiggles song “Rock-A-Bye Your Bear“, the Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear chant, and Teddy Bear Playtime by Hap Palmer.

This was a fairly quick program – the kids finished painting much more quickly than I had planned, but they had fun blowing off steam with all the songs we danced to.  Overall, it was a fun program, but I think I would change the age group if I do it again.  Thankfully, we already have a stuffy sleepover planned for the preschool age group in the new year.