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1. What is bedtime?

2. Do you do anything special before you go to bed?

3. Do you like having stories read to you?

4. What is a rhyme?

5. What is a nursery rhyme?

6. What helps you fall asleep?

7. What is a pun?

8. Do you have a before-bed snack?

The questions above will set the stage for reading Duck in the Fridge and introduce your child to some of the concepts in the book.

Duck in the Fridge will introduce your child to Mother Goose stories in a novel new way! It’s time for bed, but that doesn’t mean it’s time for the same old boring bedtime story. This one starts with a boy who discovers a duck in his fridge. Soon there are more ducks, and the only thing they are interested in is having fun. So the boy gets some dogs to scare them away...but things don’t go quite the way he planned. More and more animals arrive, and soon there’s a party. Will the boy ever be able to get to sleep? Filled with puns and loads of visual humor, the silliness pours off each page of this rollicking story.

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In Duck in the Fridge the young boy is having a hard time getting to sleep. Sometimes a healthy bedtime snack is an excellent way to calm your child down and help him/her sleep through the night.

1½ cups oats

¾ cup chopped pecans

3 tablespoons chia seeds

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon vanilla

⅓ cup honey

¼ cup coconut oil

Yogurt cup

1.

1. Mix oats, pecans, chia seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla in a medium-size bowl.

2. In a small saucepan, melt the honey and coconut oil together.

3. Pour over the dry mixture and stir.

4. Press into a well-greased glass 8×8 pan.

5. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes or until light golden brown.

6. Cool for 15 minutes or so.

7. Crumble onto yogurt or add to a yogurt cup for a tasty and healthy snack.

Duck in the Fridge starts off with a duck coming out of the fridge. In this fun activity your child will look at what is inside your fridge and also what they wish was in it. This activity is great for building vocabulary and finding out what foods your child likes best.

All you need is a sheet of paper and something to write with. First draw three columns on the page. Have your child name all the items in the fridge they know, and write them down in the first column. Write the items they don’t know in the second column. Make sure you point those items out and have your child repeat the names in that column.

Once you have the first two columns, ask your child what other things they would like in the fridge, and write them in the third column.

After you have the three lists, you can help your child plan their favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

First, cut out all of the cards along the lines. To play the game, you will flip the cards facedown and randomly lay them out in three rows of four. You and your child will take turns flipping two cards over, trying to make a match. When players match up the cards, they take both cards and set them in front of them. Keep taking turns until all of the cards have been matched up.

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Puns are jokes created from homophones, which are words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Use the homophones below to create your own side-splitting puns.

aloud – allowed

bored – board

plain – plane

horse – hoarse

hair – hare

sun – son

pale – pail

blew – blue

tale – tail

pear – pair

waste – waist

night – knight

Ex. I like apples better than pairs.

Talking is not aloud.

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In this activity, you can teach your child about healthy eating. The Dr. Sears Wellness Institute teaches Traffic Light Eating. In Dr. Sears’ Traffic Light Eating, Green light foods mean “GO”! They are healthy foods that help our body. Your child should be encouraged to eat green light foods whenever they want. Yellow light foods are “SLOW down” foods. They are foods that are OK to eat, but ones you don’t want to eat too much of. Red light foods mean “STOP and think.” They are foods we need to stop and decide how much of them you should eat. Using the chart below, you and your child will create a stoplight collage. For more information on Traffic Light Eating, click here:

:1. Help your child color the plates – one green, one

yellow, and one red.

2. Using the chart below, help your child find and cut out four to six pictures of foods from each color.

3. Assist your child in gluing the pictures onto the corresponding plates.

4. Help your child stick a paper clip through the top of the green plate so that the plate hangs from it.

5. Staple the bottom of the green plate to the top of the yellow plate, and then staple the bottom of the yellow plate to the top of the red plate.

6. Tie a piece of string to the top clip and hang it!

3 white paper plates

1 paper clip

Stapler with staples

Glue

String

Green, yellow, and red markers or crayons

Several magazines with food advertisements or one food magazine

Whole-grain breads

Pasta

Rice

Fresh fruit and vegetables

Fresh fruit juice

Fresh, lean meats, fish, and poultry

Low-fat dairy products

Eggs

Water

Refined white bread

Processed breakfast cereals

Full-fat dairy products

Processed meats (hot dogs, ham, bacon,

chicken nuggets)

Reduced-fat flavored milk

Reduced-sugar fruit juices

Popcorn

Mashed potatoes

Fried foods

Donuts, pastries, and pies

Potato chips

Cakes and muffins

Candy

Ice Cream

Pizza

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This guide was created by Chris Valcarcel, educational consultant, and Jennifer Messinger, graphic designer.

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