Obviously you can tell that I love teddy bears and live bear cubs because I have included them in the title of my book, “Butterflies, Bears, and Other Poems for Children.” As parents and grandparents, a Teddy Bear is usually one of the very first gifts that we give our children as a way to make them feel safe and comfortable. It is something warm for them to cuddle up close to at bedtime. Consequently, Teddy Bear nursery rhymes and poems are an important part of a child’s early years of life. In fact, there are 2 special days set aside for teddy bear fans. July 10 is Teddy Bear Picnic Day and September 9 is Teddy Bear Day. To celebrate Teddy Bear Day in my first grade classroom before I retired, I would ask my students to bring along their favorite Teddy Bear to spend the day. I then planned Reading and Math activities around the bears. One of the most enjoyable activities we did was to line up all the bears along the floor. Then we would create a large bar graph depicting the number of girl bears, boy bears, bears wearing hats, bears wearing dresses, black bears, brown bears, white bears, etc. This was so much fun for the kids! Later, we would answer questions using the information on our graph, such as “What color bear do we have the most of?” “How many bears are wearing red?,” etc. This proved to be an awesome and productive Math lesson every year I did it.
Teddy Bear rhymes, songs, and finger plays can be fun for young children anytime and anywhere. The following chant is one that my siblings and I jumped rope to when we were growing up, and I remember it fondly, even to this day.
This is how it goes:
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around, round, round.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground, ground, ground.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, reach up high, high, high.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the sky, sky, sky.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch your knees, knees, knees.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, sit down please, please, please.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, go upstairs, stairs, stairs.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say your prayers, prayers, prayers.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn out the light, light, light.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say goodnight, night, night.
(We would perform the actions to each line of the chant.)
Here are 2 other cute poems about bears:
BEAR
Bear, bear, bear, bear
How many kinds of bears are there?
Polar bear and grizzly bear,
Big brown bear with lots of hair.
Black bear and sun bear too.
Bear, bear - there’s quite a few!
BEARS
Bears like honey that comes from bees.
Bears like to nap under shady trees.
Bears can be cuddly, or big and mean.
But my Teddy Bear is the cutest I’ve seen.
He’s by my side when I’m happy or blue,
Here’s to my Teddy Bear, “I love you!”
TEDDY BEAR PICNIC (This is a popular 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 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!
I have included 2 cute poems about bears in my children’s book. BEAR CUBS tells why I like bear cubs, and TEDDY BEARS includes information about how this popular toy originated. I hope you and your children will enjoy reading them!
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