Please, Mr. Panda: A Sensory Doughnut Invitation
Inspired by Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony, this invitation took the story beyond the pages and into play, inviting children to create, decorate & imagine their very own doughnuts through hands-on exploration.
Please, Mr. Panda follows Mr. Panda as he offers a tray of colorful doughnuts to his animal friends. Everyone seems to want one, but there is one very important word they keep forgetting: please! Beyond its humor and beautifully simple illustrations, the story opens up a natural conversation about manners, kindness, communication & how we ask for the things we want.
And, of course, all of those colorful doughnuts were just asking to become an invitation to play!
I cut pool noodles into slices, and they instantly became the perfect pretend doughnuts. Their round shape and center opening created a simple, inexpensive base that children could completely transform through their own creativity.
I arranged the doughnuts on our Tuff Tray alongside the book, connecting the story with the materials waiting to be explored.
For our "frosting," I mixed shaving cream with Colorations® Fluorescent BioColor® Paint, creating vibrant, fluffy colors to scoop, spread, swirl & layer.
Our Tinker Tray was filled with an assortment of loose parts, including resin sprinkles, acrylic rocks, glow-in-the-dark pebbles & gems galore. Children could choose their colors, pile on toppings, create patterns or dream up their own one of a kind doughnuts.
One of my favorite ways to extend children's literature is to give children opportunities to make the story come to life. They could create doughnuts for Mr. Panda, offer them to one another, imagine which toppings each character might like & retell parts of the story through play.
And within all of that decorating was so much learning. As children scooped, spread, pinched, pressed, sprinkled & placed, they strengthened fine motor skills & hand-eye coordination while exploring the soft, fluffy texture of the shaving cream & discovering what happened as colors and materials mixed together.
The open-ended materials also naturally invited counting, sorting, patterning, color recognition, comparison & early mathematical thinking, all while children were completely immersed in creating and playing.
This is exactly why I love using children's books as the beginning of an invitation rather than the end. A story can introduce a character, idea or possibility, & open-ended materials give children the freedom to imagine what might happen next.
Please, Mr. Panda began with a tray of colorful doughnuts and a simple reminder about the power of saying please. Our invitation extended that story into opportunities to create, communicate, imagine, retell & play.
The pool noodles became doughnuts. The shaving cream became frosting. The loose parts became toppings. And the story became something children could touch, transform & make entirely their own.
That is the beauty of extending children's literature through play by giving children the materials, space & freedom to carry a story beyond the pages and into play.
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