I'll Wait Mr. Panda - Teaching Ideas

Mr Panda is making a surprise. What is it? The animals must wait and see. But waiting is BORING.

Only one little penguin has the patience and politeness to stick around. Will he be rewarded?

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Can you turn this story into a playscript and perform it for an audience?
Write a recipe for something that Mr. Panda might bake.
Write your own story about somebody who has to wait for something nice.
Retell the story from Mr. Panda’s point of view. Could you write it from the penguin’s point of view too?
Retell the story as a narrative in the third person.
There are a number of other ‘Mr. Panda’ books. Which is your favourite? Could you write a new story that includes this character?
Steve Antony has a Twitter account. Can you think of questions that you could ask him in less than 140 characters?

How long are you happy to wait for things? Can you wait for one minute (without checking the time on a clock or stopwatch)? Did you accurately estimate the length of a minute?
Mr. Panda has a pattern of circles (doughnuts) on his apron. Could you design your own repeating patterns?
Estimate the radius / diameter / circumference of the penguin’s surprise gift.

Find out about pandas. Can you research the topic and create a report about them?
The author / illustrator of these books is colour-blind. Can you find out more about colour blindness? What is it, and how does it affect people?

Design something that will help the penguin to transport his gift home.
Make some puppets of the characters in this story and use them to retell it to an audience.

Look at the picture on the inside front cover (which is made up of lots of dots of colour). Could you use a similar technique (i.e. pointillism) to make a picture that forms an image?
Could you create your own illustrations of pandas? How might they be similar / different to Steve Antony’s pictures?

Identify the animals included in this story and find out where they live in the wild. Could you plot these on a map?

Mr. Panda says that what he is making is ‘a surprise’. Can you think of a time when you have been surprised? Can you think of something that would be a nice surprise for a friend or a member of your family?
Think of a time when you had to be patient and wait for something. Was it worth the wait?