Bonfire Night Games

The teddy bears were looking forward to holding their own Bonfire Night Party this year. "What sort of things do you think we should do?" asked Vicky. "Apart from the fireworks and the food of course!"

"Well, I'm sure there are all sorts of games we could play," suggested Scary. "Has anyone any ideas?"

"What about bobbing for apples?" asked Boo, then immediately regretted it as he hated to get his fur wet.

"How about something slightly different?" suggested Teddy. "We could tie the apples to pieces of string and hang them up, then everyone has to try and grab one dangling in front of them."

This sounded like quite a fun idea, and at least there was no water involved! But Boo still didn't really like the thought of all those hard apples crashing and banging around the teddy bears' heads! "How about we swap the apples hanging up for marshmallows?" he asked. "That way no-one will get knocked on the head, and also, I much prefer eating marshmallows to apples!"

Everyone laughed. They all preferred the marshmallow idea too! Boo suggested that they ought to try it out before their party, just to make sure that it would work alright, not because it meant extra marshmallows of course!

Boo set it up and invited Charlie to be the first to try it. "You have to hold your paws behind your back all the time!" ordered Boo, "otherwise it's much too easy!"

Charlie dutifully put his paws behind his back and reached over to the marshmallow hanging temptingly within reach, but as soon as his lips touched the marshmallow it swung away as it was so light in weight! He had to pursue it several times before he eventually managed to get his mouth around it. But he assured everyone that it was worth the wait!

"What other games can we play?" asked Harry. "I'm not really keen on all the big bangs of the fireworks outside, and even though I like the bright colours from the sparklers, I'm a bit scared to hold one myself." He sighed.

"Well, how about we make you your own sparkler," suggested Lizzie. "I'm sure we could make something which is much safer and less frightening for you. And you can use it indoors if it's still raining," she added as she looked out the window.

"OK. That sounds good," replied Harry. "But how are we going to make one?"

Lizzie winked at Harry. "I'll just go and get some things from our craft box," she said, "I won't be long." And soon she was back with a whole pile of interesting items.

She had brought some aluminium foil, several sheets of coloured tissue paper, a roll of sticky tape, some scissors and some straws. The other teddy bears gathered around her to see what she was making. First of all she took two short pieces of aluminium foil and cut one edge on each into lots of strips. Then she did the same with 2 pieces of yellow tissue paper, and then the same with some red tissue paper. Then she alternately stuck the uncut edges of each piece around one of the straws. She started with one of the red tissue lengths, then one of aluminium foil, then the yellow, then another red, then finally the second aluminium foil.

Then she handed the sparkler over to Harry. "It's very pretty," said Harry carefully, "but it doesn't really sparkle."

"Aha!" said Lizzie. "What you need to do is hold the end of the straw between your two paws and swizzle it backwards and forwards between them."

Harry tried that and was amazed how his sparkler suddenly came to life! It fizzled and sizzled just like a real sparkler! He was thrilled with it!

All the other bears immediately wanted one too, and Lizzie helped them all make one for themselves. They all stood in a line, setting their sparklers to sparkle one by one. They loved how the sparklers looked.

"Thanks, Lizzie," said Harry. "This is the best sparkler I've ever had!"

"I'm glad it has worked so well," she replied. "And if the weather isn't very nice on Bonfire Night we can still have all the fun of the fireworks inside instead."

The bears now couldn't wait for their party to begin.