It’s a teddy bear beginning sound picnic to develop phonological awareness. Come join the party.
Here is a little fun piece of trivia about me. Have you ever been to Build-a-Bear Workshop with the kids to pick out and stuff their new teddy bear friend?
Do you remember the part where you select a shiny satin heart, make a wish and kiss it? I dated the gentleman that came up with that little ritual!
What does this little story have to do with reading? Well, my kids recently visited Build-A-Bear Workshop for the first time to pick out their reading buddies. Since our Early Child Education Team theme this week is teddy bears, we thought we would share another playful way to build phonological awareness with our new cuddly friends.
Beginning Sounds Picnic
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Materials Needed
teddy bear friend, picnic basket, various food items for a snack, napkins and a blanket
Set-Up
Are you ready? This is super easy!
Place the food items in the picnic basket. Throw in a few napkins. Lay a blanket out. Set the basket on the blanket. Grab your teddy bear and have a seat at the picnic!
We packed apples, grapes, cheese, crackers, pistachios and water in our basket.
Let’s Play and Learn
Have your child remove one item from the basket and name it. Then ask, “What sound do you hear at the beginning of apple? Yes, apple begins with the /a/ sound.” Continue removing each item from the basket and discussing beginning sounds.
This is a fun and playful way to work on awareness of beginning segments of a word.
Extension: If your child is ready and you would like to extend this into a phonics activity, pack a container of alphabet letters. After your child identifies the beginning sound, have him or her find the letter that represents that sound.
After the basket is empty, it’s time to enjoy eating at the picnic with the teddy bear friends.
Now, pick up a few more teddy bear ideas to do with the kids from our Early Childhood Education Team (#teachECE).
Feed the Bear Alphabet Activity by Mom Inspired Life (bottom right picture)
Teddy Bear Alphabet Activities by Tiny Tots Adventures
Bear Counters Name Recognition Activity by Munchkins and Moms
The Dissolving Teddy Bears: Simple Preschool Science! by The Preschool Toolbox Blog
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Let’s Add to Ten-Kinder and Pre-K Math activity by Capri + 3 (top right picture)
Printable Bear Math Patterns for Preschoolers by Fun-A-Day (bottom left picture)
Teddy Bear Preschool Theme Counting Activities by Learning 2 Walk
Gummy Bear Science | Exploring Osmosis with Preschoolers (with Free Printable Science Journal) by Raising Lifelong Learners
Teddy Bear Writing Activity for Kids with FREE Printable by The Educators’ Spin On It
The Preschool Toolbox says
What a great idea with EASY set-up! I love that the picnic can be indoors or outside to build important literacy skills!
Alecia says
Such a great idea! I love the picnic idea. My kids always love to have a picnic in the living room. Thanks for the inspiration!
Clarissa says
What a great picnic! You can even throw some curve balls in there with the /ch/ sound!
Theresa says
What a fun learning and play activity! Our kids would have a blast with this.
Cerys says
Fantastic this is perfect for our phonics homework from school this week I can collect some objects to use with the sounds that they are working on.
Colleen Kessler says
Sounds like fun — my kiddos love picnics, so this will be a fun twist for them. Doing this today!
Danielle says
My kids love to have picnic lunches, so this is perfect for us. I am going to surprise them with a picnic and do this!
Amanda says
Setting this up right now. My kindergartner is home sick from school, a teddy bear beginning sounds picnic sounds like the perfect calm activity to reinforce what he’s learning at school.