Louise, Heather and I are waiting at the gates for the school bus to arrive full of excited kids, ready for their school tour experience. It brings a smile to our faces as they jump off the bus to a big, beary welcome from Seamus the bear who high fives and shakes hands with the children. Heads counted, the children walk up the tree lined avenue, past the playground and into the beautiful gardens of Bear Essentials, the sun is out and kids are chatting. Great day for our workshop today, lots of thrilled faces.
We see the teachers relaxing, now they know all 59 kids are in a safe place, and a well needed cup of tea is brewing.
Heather from “Blue Damsel Discovery” is running a workshop outside. She has very interesting bowls of slimy newts, slippery snails and nets to catch bugs and butterfly’s, she takes half the group of children to do fun outdoor stuff, and myself and Louise take the other half for the Build Your Bear Workshop inside. It’s a win win kind of situation, well tried and tested in all kinds of weather, it works and the kids absolutely love it, so do we. Even the teachers get involved too, just if they want to…
Boys and girls pick their choice of bear or animal and start stuffing and sewing. We see them take great joy in doing something they may not have had the opportunity to do before. We like to encourage them to stuff, sew and customise their bears by themselves which gives them a great sense of achievement and pride. You can’t see the table with all the stuff, not to mention the floor!!!
Creative people have to be allowed to be messy.
After learning a lot about teddy bears and bears in the wild we are ready for an outside picnic and time in the playground. Our best compliment we got so many times from the kids “Our best school tour ever”. Thanks guys we love to work with you and share our experience, after all we love to make memories for all of us.
You may be may be like to know that Bear Essentials has the largest collection of Teddy Bears in Ireland with the Teddy Bear Shop just beside the Silver Bear Centre.
See here for more info about our School Tours.