How to Have a Healthy and Courteous Teddy Bear Picnic

Our first tea party picnic was so much fun that Zoey has been asking when we can have another one. Teddy Bear Picnic Day is July 10, so I decided to expand on our healthy and courteous tea party picnic by having a healthy and courteous Teddy bear picnic! Zoey doesn’t spend the afternoon at my house this year on July 10, so we had our Teddy bear picnic a few days early.

 

As I said before, we have a number of food allergies in our family. And who knows if our invited Teddy bears don’t have allergies?! So our Teddy bear picnic menu, like all our menus, was designed to work for many with food allergies or special diets.

How to Have a Healthy and Courteous Teddy Bear Picnic – YouTube Video

In this 1 minute, 58 second video, my daughter, Christina, and Zoey (Christina’s niece) enjoy a special Teddy bear picnic with two Teddy bear friends. So sweet!

Following are our menu, items used, and the grace and courtesy lessons we emphasized.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

Our Menu for a Healthy Teddy Bear Picnic

• Mini Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins (super-healthy and yummy muffins made using mini muffin pans and mini muffin cups)
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Warm Camomile Tea made with hot water and organic camomile tea bags (cooled to a safe temperature)
• Some people like having Teddy-bear-shaped sandwiches (peanut butter or another kind).

Items for a Teddy Bear Picnic

• Ceramic Tea Set with Basket (I chose this set because it has a pretty basket and settings for 4 … many are only settings for 2. If you get this set, be sure to save the plastic inserts if you want to store your tea set in it. I put the inserts back in the basket {just cut the tall part down to fit easily} to safely store our special-occasion tea set. Unfortunately, that set isn’t as readily available, so it’s really gone up in price. This is a similar ceramic tea set from the same company. You might also want to check out other ceramic tea sets.)
• My Very First Tea Party by Michal Sparks (This is a lovely board book for a early tea parties, although you should be aware that it has a prayer in it using the word “God.” The prayer is simple and sweet if you don’t mind having a prayer at your tea party.)
• Let’s Have a Tea Party!: Special Celebrations for Little Girls by Emilie Barnes (This is by the same Christian publisher as My Very First Tea Party. It has lots of fun ideas for themed tea parties. I just used it as a reference, but Zoey will probably enjoy it when she’s a bit older.)
  
• Corduroy (This is not a Montessori-style book because of its talking, walking Teddy bear, but it’s a sweet story and a classic.)
• A Pocket for Corduroy (Again, this has a talking, walking Teddy bear named Corduroy.)
• teaspoon as serving spoon
• small container for berries (I used a lotus dish from Montessori Services … also used for transferring activities)
• Multicraft tray for food and tea set
• Blanket or blankets (Our Teddy bear blanket was Christina’s when she was a baby!)
• Flowers that Zoey arranged.
• Food and Tea (See menu above)
• party dress
• hat (Zoey’s wearing a hat Christina wore as a toddler!)
• white gloves are often used, although we didn’t use them because of Zoey’s age.

Grace and Courtesy Activities Used in Our Teddy Bear Picnic

We focused on these tea-party manners:

• putting napkin on lap
• saying “yes, please” or “no, thank you”
• saying “thank you” (Zoey often said this softly in the video. Since it couldn’t be heard well over the background noise, it was edited out. Zoey does very well with her thank you’s, although she sometimes forgets. She is a 2½ year old! Whenever something is inconsistent, we just work on it again another day.)
• saying “you’re welcome” (Zoey’s starting to say “you’re welcome.” It was soft in the video, so it was edited out. It’s still too new to be totally consistent, too.)
• saying “thank you for the tea party”

Learn more about Montessori at Home or School: How to Teach Grace and Courtesy (my book for teaching grace and courtesy for ages 2-12!)

This was so much fun! It isn’t considered Montessori-style to have Teddy bears at a picnic, but a Teddy bear picnic is still a great way to reinforce Montessori grace and courtesy lessons.

More Teddy Bear Resources

Child’s Tea Party on Amazon

Teddy Bear Books

Free Teddy Bear Songs and Rhymes for Circle Time

You’ll find more teddy bear picnic resources at my Free Picnic Printables and Montessori-Inspired Picnic Activities post (2024).

Montessori-Inspired Picnic Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my email to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber). This includes teddy bear picnic printables as well!

• Montessori-Inspired Teddy Bear Activities
• Montessori-Inspired Brown Bear, Brown Bear Activities,
• Kids’ Teddy Bear Activities Pinterest Board

I’d love to hear about your Teddy bear picnic! 🙂

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy!

If this is your first time visiting Living Montessori Now, welcome! If you haven’t already, please join us on our Living Montessori Now Facebook page where you’ll find a Free Printable of the Day and lots of inspiration and ideas for parenting and teaching! And please follow me on Instagram, Pinterest (lots of Montessori-, holiday-, and theme-related boards), and YouTube. While you’re here, please check out the Living Montessori Now shop.

And don’t forget one of the best ways to follow me by signing up for my weekly newsletter. You’ll receive some awesome freebies in the process!