Duggee and the Squirrels get up to all sorts of adventures in The Being Quiet Badge. They learn about being quiet, of course. They also go on a monster hunt, look through Great-Grandmama’s scrapbook and eat delicious pineapple bread. This throws up lots of ideas for fun activities to do with kids.
Here’s a checklist of ideas to get your Being Quiet Badge:
Practice Being Quiet
The Squirrels all have a go at trying to express themselves without talking and the Narrator guesses what they are trying to say. Get the kids to do the same while you guess. Alternatively, throw out some feelings and see if they can express them non-verbally. Here are some ideas for feelings they could try to mime:
- Happy
- Sad
- Hot
- Cold
- Excited
- Scared
- Hungry
- Thirsty
- Tired
For more quiet games check out this blog post from Pint-Sized Treasures. There are fabulous suggestions for play in restaurants and times when you are stuck waiting somewhere.
We’re Going on a Monster Hunt
The book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt has been popular with children for 50 years. It’s had many incarnations and today for our Being Quiet Badge we are going on a monster hunt.
If you don’t know the original book you can check out the website. You can also buy the book on Amazon and I would highly recommend looking up Michael Rosen performing the book on Youtube.
Here’s my Hey Duggee inspired Monster Hunt version of the words for you to use at home:
We’re all going on a monster hunt
We’re not scared
(Everyone) We’re not scared
Uh-oh, a cold deep river.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go around it.
We’ll have to go through it.
Splash, splash,
Splash, splash,
Splash, splash.
We’re all going on a monster hunt
We’re not scared
(Everyone) We’re not scared
Uh-oh, a muddy squelchy swamp.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go around it.
We’ll have to go through it.
Squelch, squelch,
Squelch, squelch,
Squelch, squelch.
We’re all going on a monster hunt
We’re not scared
(Everyone) We’re not scared
Uh-oh, a cold, deep snow.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go around it.
We’ll have to go through it.
Wade, wade,
Wade, wade,
Wade, wade.
We’re all going on a monster hunt
We’re not scared
(Everyone) We’re not scared
Uh-oh, jagged, pointed rocks.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go around it.
We’ll have to go through it.
Climb, climb,
Climb, climb,
Climb, climb.
Shhhhhh, what’s this?
Tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe.
It’s the Snard!
We’re all going on a monster hunt.
Now we’re scared.
(Everyone) Now we’re scared.
Quick, tiptoe tiptoe, tiptoe.
Quick, through the rocks,
Climb, climb, climb.
Quick, through the snow,
Wade, wade, wade.
Quick, through the swamp,
Squelch, squelch, squelch.
Quick, through the river,
Splash, splash, splash.
Phew.
We went on a monster hunt.
We were brave.
(Everyone) We were brave.
Scrapbooking
Making scrapbooks with kids can be a lot of fun and there’s the option to make them as simple or complicated as you like. Here are my ideas for how to make a scrapbook about your adventures finding the Snard.
- Make up your own monsters – Great-Grandmama’s scrapbook has a page of pictures of what people thought the Snard would look like made from pictures of other animals. Why not have a go at this yourselves? If you have a magazine that’s ready to be recycled then you could cut them out from there. Alternatively, print some pictures from the internet. Cut them up and create some new weird and wonderful animals in your scrapbook. Another option is to get the craft materials out and let the kids use their imagination. We did a bit of both.
- Get Drawing – Draw some pictures of you on your monster hunt, splashing through water, squelching through mud, wading through snow and climbing over rocks.
- The Snard – Either draw a picture of the Snard or download and colour in the picture from the Hey Duggee website.
For more ideas on how to get started scrapbooking with kids check out these blogs:
Pineapple Bread
The Snard is eventually tempted out of his cave because it smells Duggee’s delicious pineapple bread. Why not have a go at baking some yourself? I found a recipe online and it’s so easy it has made it has way into my regular baking. It’s also completely dairy-free (vegan in fact) so my dairy-free monster can enjoy it too. It is an extremely moist cake so my tip is to make sure you have the temperature of the oven correct and bake it for at least an hour.
Here’s the recipe:
The recipe is a US one so here are the UK conversions:
- Flour: 240g
- Sugar: 200g
- Pineapple: A regular 435g tin
- Temperature: 180 C
Suggested Resources
Books:
Good luck getting you Being Quiet Badge. I would love to see and hear about what you do. Put pictures and ideas in the comments below.