Waddles, by David McPhail

Theme: Waddles, by David McPhail

Honey Pot is 2 years and 8 months old

This month’s featured author in the Virtual Book Club is David McPhail. We borrowed a few of his books from the library. What wonderful illustrations, and such cute characters. It was a toss-up between Waddles and My Little Brother. I would really like to have chosen the latter, but I couldn’t think of any activities that would involve both kids while showing her why her brother is so great. So alas, we chose Waddles!

Waddles is a cute story about a raccoon and his life throughout the four seasons of the year. He eats a lot because he is always so very hungry. A friendship forms between him and a duck family, and soon our raccoon finds himself feeling full and happy. Take a look at the activities we did to accompany this book!

Four Seasons Fluffy Stuff

I have wanted to talk to Honey Pot about the four seasons. This book provided that opportunity, as we saw Waddles in each of them. A blog called Isn’t That Sweet discovered a fun new craft material for just such a craft as this. You begin with pieces of scrap paper and a cheese grater…

Shred it up, and you get FLUFFY STUFF!

I’m always looking for new materials to use with Honey Pot. And I always have tons of scrap paper to use up. First I created four sets of fluffy stuff, and created a page with four bare trees on it. My freehand skills are lacking, so I pulled up some clip art on the Internet and literally used my computer screen as a light table to trace it. (Computer has been on the fritz, or else I would have used Photoshop for this!)

I asked Honey Pot to squirt a little bit of glue onto the top of the first tree, and then she added the fluffy stuff. We discussed each season and what happens to the trees and the weather during each. She really enjoyed this craft!

And take a peek at the final result!

Life Cycle of a Duck

Waddles’ best friend is a duck! We see her children’s lives throughout the different stages. So I printed some flashcards that I found on Sparkle Box. I placed them in random order and, referencing the book, I asked Honey Pot which picture comes first.

She needed a little bit of help with this! But in conjunction with the story, we were able to figure out the complete set.

Duck’s Nest Sensory Bin - Alphabet Hunt

It’s been almost a year since we began our Tot School. We started off doing one letter each week; and had we continued, we’d have been through the alphabet twice already! I am a little ashamed to say I’ve been slacking in our alphabet activities, as we’ve only gotten through the letter J as of yet. I decided a review was in order, and hopefully soon we will continue on through the rest of the letters!

In the book, Waddles offers to sit on his duck friend’s nest while she takes a swim. I thought a nest would be an interesting sensory bin, as well as a fun place for an alphabet hunt!

I had some basket shred in my supplies, which I had purchased for one dollar, from a craft that never came to fruition. What luck that it was brown and looked much like a nest! I spread it out through a bin, and hid the letters A through J (from my scrapbooking supplies, also in brown) inside.

Then I created a simple template on which Honey Pot could glue them, and set it up on her craft table.

I was a little hesitant, as it wasn't one of our usual messy, strange sensory bin concoctions. But she actually really enjoyed digging through here! She loved finding each letter. If she knew it, she would say it. “I found the A!” or, “Here’s a H!” If she didn't, we placed it above her template, and sang through the alphabet song, pointing at each letter as we sang it. This method worked great!

She used her glue stick once she matched up the letter to the template, and stuck it on.

Honey Pot really loved rummaging through the paper shreds!

And we always returned to the alphabet song should she need help identifying the letter. Honey Pot put a couple of the letters upside down. But they are symmetrical letters, so I didn't argue!

Honey Pot was so excited when she completed her hunt and letter matching, that she immediately picked up the paper and ran out the room yelling, “I’m going to show Daddy!”

She told him she knew all these letters and proved it by singing the song as he pointed to each one. She was so proud. We celebrated with some hot cocoa!

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