Good Bear Day
and Teddy Roosevelt's Birthday
Good Bear Day was created especially on the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. president, because teddy bears are named for him! Apparently a toy manufacturer heard about an incident in which Roosevelt treated a bear humanely (kindly, with consideration of suffering), and the manufacturer asked permission to name its new stuffed bear after the president.
Since that time in the early 1900s, teddy bear has been synonymous with toy bear or stuffed bear.
So, Good Bear Day was on Teddy R's birthday—but what was Good Bear Day?
It was a holiday created by a group who collected teddy bears and other stuffed animals to be distributed to sick, needy, or traumatized children and others “in need of bear hugs to make life a little more bearable.”
The organization accepted donations of new teddies or of previously loved bears, which were restored before being distributed to kids in need.
Celebrate teddies!
- Read or sing “The Teddy Bear Picnic.” If the weather is nice, you could treat your teddies to a picnic!
- Refurbish and donate stuffed animals that are mouldering in the corners of your house!
- Or spiff up your teddy bears and proudly display them as a collection. Another way to decorate with teddy bears is to dress them according to season. Right now your teddies need some quickie Halloween costumes!
- Draw or color some cuddly teddy bears. Instead of using real bear colors such as black or brown, try coloring a bear in colorful plaids or prints. You can make a bear drawing look like a teddy bear by showing some stitching or drawing buttons for eyes, too. Cute!
Here are some simple coloring pages.
Here is a much more complicated picture to color in. It's by Jan Brett, so you know it's great!
Here is a step-by-step lesson on drawing a bear.
And here is a more complicated step-by-step on drawing teddy bears.
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