Where The Wild Things Are - Activities For Children

Thanks for stopping by. Today I will be sharing a few activities you can do with your children from the award winning book

In our Language Arts class today, we read the book Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. My daughter had read this before, but we read it again and made a lesson study from it.

I gathered up materials from our local library and reserved both the book and the movie for us to read, watch, and compare. Neither of us had watched the movie before so this was a great learning opportunity to talk about comparing the book to the movie.


I read her the story and then we discussed it. I also found a small comprehension online quiz that helped see if she understood the book and everything going on throughout it. We both really liked the way this quiz was set up. She found it fun and easy to use.

In the book, Max was sent to his room without supper. At the end of the book, he can smell the yummy food and wanted to go back home. There, in his bedroom, was his plate with dinner on it waiting for him.

I had my daughter draw what her favorite food was and if she were king of the Wild Things and smelled yummy food that was good enough to leave and come back home, what food would that be? This was her response:


She said that if she were king of the Wild Things, the only food that would make her stop being king and come back home would be shrimp, mashed potatoes with gravy, and spaghetti with meatballs.

Next, I asked her what if Max left the land of the Wild Things, but brought one of them back with him? We already knew what Max's bedroom looked like. But what would the bedroom of a Wild Thing look like? I found a photo of an empty room and printed it out. I then told her to draw up the bedroom of a Wild Thing.

I then asked her to describe everything going on and why she chose what she did to put into the room. She said of course there will have to be a tree and vines growing along the walls. A bamboo bed, a desk, a fish bowl and dresser, with lots of grass everywhere as carpet.

After we were done with the activities, we put in the DVD to the movie that was released in 2009. I was curious as to what they were going to do with it since the book only takes about five minutes to read and the movie is an hour and a half long.

But we put it in and watched it. I must say, I was not expecting it to be the way it was and I don't think she was either. She told me after it was finished that she did not like the movie and would never ever want to ever watch it again. I then asked her what she didn't like about it and to tell me what was the same and what was different compared to the book.

This was our first "book to movie" lesson so I think it was a good one because I knew she was expecting it to be exactly the same. I explained to her that almost all books that are turned into movies are very different from one another. So we discussed this more until we were done with our lesson for the day.

Also, if you are feeling a bit thirsty, you and your child could try out the Wild Thing Island Smoothie. It looks so yummy and sounds delicious. We were planning on making these this weekend.

What you need:
  • 3 cups ice
  • 1 1⁄2 cups pineapple
  • 1⁄2 cup apple juice
  • 1⁄2 cup orange juice
  • 1 medium banana
  • 1 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt
What to do:
  1. Place all ingredients in the blender, and let it ROAR!
  2. For added fun, after pouring into glasses, make beastly faces with cherry eyes, blueberry noses, and a lemon-slice mouth. Serves 6.

You can find the recipe and also photos all right on Food.com 's website.

So if you are looking for some easy activities to use and do with younger elementary aged children, these were a few to get your started. If you have done other activities, I would love to know. Leave a comment to share some more ideas.


10 comments

  1. Awesome idea! Sounds very fun. The kids and I just may try :)

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  2. Where The Wild Things Are was one of my favorite books as a kid! Thanks for the smoothie recipe.

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  3. Let me know if you do :) We had fun with this one

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  4. You are welcome. I can't wait to try it out myself. It sounds so yummy

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  5. These sound like really fun ideas. I will have to do this with the kids this Summer! I can't believe it but we have never read Where The Wild Things Are. It was one of my favorite books as a kid!

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  6. I will definitely let you know :)

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  7. I love this book! We have read it before but never done a study on it. Thanks for the great resource and sharing on Favorite things Friday! Make sure to add a link back or button to be eligible to be featured, I would love to see you on my blog! Thanks for linking up and hope to see you again this week! --Rebecca from Hip Homeschooling

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  8. Rachel Shoham HackettJun 10, 2015, 11:12:00 AM

    Such a cute post! We actually have this book (and I didn't realize they had a movie out! I know... where have I been?!) ;) Great suggestions to put to use! Thanks for the share & for linking up to 'Favorite Things Friday' with Simply Rachel & Hip Homeschooling!

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  9. This is awesome! This is my youngest child's favorite book since he was a baby! Thanks for sharing this week on #SocialButterflySunday. Hope you link up again this week! Have a wonderful weekend :)

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