Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, featured in Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger, continues to delight children with the antics of Squirrel Nutkin, his brother Twinkleberrry, and Old Brown the owl over one hundred years after Potter wrote and illustrated this classic.
The following program ideas, designed for children under ten, offer children the opportunity to engage Nutkin and the other characters from the book after reading the text. The activities may be adapted for individual or smaller groups of children as well.
Squirrel Nutkin Art Activity
Potter’s illustrations of Nutkin and Old Brown, as well as Peter Rabbit and her other famous creations, reflect her love of nature near the Lake District in England. Potter’s delicate watercolors of Nutkin set in the Lake District can inspire children to create their own masterpieces based on their native environment.
Supplies needed:
- Large sheets of white paper, one per child
- Markers, crayons, or paints if messiness is not a problem
Encourage each child to imagine himself/herself as Squirrel Nutkin. All the squirrels are going into his/her neighborhood for a hard day’s work finding nuts. Instruct each child to imagine where his/her Squirrel Nutkin is- a tree in the child’s backyard or in a child’s home? Encourage the children to draw and color Nutkin’s surroundings on their paper.
Next invite each child to consider what his/her Nutkin is doing in this setting.
Is Nutkin going to do crazy things, like he did in the book? Is Nutkin going to be like Twinkeberry, and help the other squirrels work?
Now instruct each child to draw what his or her Squirrel Nutkin is doing. Possible ideas might include singing songs, telling riddles, or playing marbles, like Nutkin did in the book. Other ideas might include a child’s own favorite activity, such as video games, reading a book, or playing baseball.
When each child is finished with his/her drawing, encourage those who are comfortable to share where his/her Nutkin is and what his/her Nutkin is doing with the group.
Squirrel Nutkin Dance Activity
One of Squirrel Nutkin’s favorite activities is singing, dancing, and giving Old Brown the owl a hard time. Nutkin even dances like a sunbeam for Old Brown (p. 46).
Seat all children in a circle, with ample room in the middle. Invite each child, one by one, to show how he/she might dance and sing if he/she were Squirrel Nutkin. When every child has danced for the group, encourage them all to dance together for several minutes.
Squirrel Nutkin/Old Brown Tag
The following team game takes the Squirrel Nutkin Dance (above) and turns it into a game of tag:
Encourage the children to do their Squirrel Nutkin Dance.
Pull one child in the other room and appoint that child Old Brown the Owl. Have Old Brown stretch out his or arms as far as they will go to become wings, then have him/her quickly bring the wings together like a giant jaw to symbolize Old Brown’s beak when he catches Squirrel Nutkin.
Now introduce Old Brown to the room full of dancing Nutkins and warn the other children that Old Brown is coming to get them. When Old Brown catches a Squirrel Nutkin in his/her arms, that child becomes the new Old Brown.
Continue until every child who desires has an opportunity to be Old Brown, or It.
Beatrix Potter’s classic The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin offers children an exciting story and detailed illustrations. With a Nutkin art activity, dance, and game of tag, Squirrel Nutkin and all his friends continue to come alive for children after reading the story is finished.
For other activities inspired by a children’s classic, Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe Children’s Activities: Narnia Lives Again with Program Ideas from C.S. Lewis’s Classic may be of interest.
SOURCE:
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. Frederick Warne, 2002.
Melissa Roberts - A trained hospital chaplain, Melissa is a freelance writer, teacher, retreat leader, and spiritual director.
