Description:

Place small containers of water, mud, feathers, toy flies, bugs and creepy crawlies and gumnuts near a bucket or larger container. Depending on your location, you may wish to conduct a nature walk to collect the items or you may wish to have these prepared and ready to go.

Read or listen to the story Wombat Stew by Marcia K. Vaughan with your child.

Encourage your child to play the role of the dingo by creating the wombat stew as you tell the story, placing the ingredients in the stew as they appear in the story.

Once the story is finished, encourage your child to explore the items in their Wombat Stew and discuss characteristics of each item (e.g. size, texture, shape, material)

Promote learning by:

While reading the story, discuss words they may not know such as billabong, ambling, billycan, waltzing,

While making the wombat stew, encourage your child to sing along with the words of the song sung by the dingo throughout the story.

After making the wombat stew from the story, encourage your child to create their own wombat stew using their choice of natural items.

Additional learning:

Explore the characters within the story and discuss or research the unique characteristics of Australian Fauna including the dingo, wombat, platypus, emu, blue-tongue lizard, echidna and koala.