Recently we read the book Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan. We revisited the book the following day and used the information in the book to compile a Wombat Stew recipe. We discussed how recipes include ingredients and we listed all the ingredients we could find in the book; mud, feathers, flies, bugs and gumnuts. We then talked about the method and how this describes what you need to do with the ingredients. We agreed that the method should include putting all the ingredients in the big pot, stirring them up and cooking them.

After we had compiled our recipe we decided to go outside and make it. The children had small containers to collect any ingredients we could find. We decided as a group that it would be unkind to put any live bugs/flies in. We also decided on a bit of poetic licencing and enhanced our Wombat Stew with a few extra ingredients to make it even more delicious. We added dirt, water, sticks, rocks, flowers, gumnuts, feathers, a few dead bugs and basically anything that wasn’t nailed down.

We placed them all into a  big bucket and gave it a huge stir. As we stirred the mix we chanted, “Ooey Gooey, Brewy Stewy, Wombat Stew.” Mmmmmm delicious! I asked if anyone wanted a taste test and was greeted with a chorus of “ERRR, NO WAY!” I suggested we go inside and make a much nicer edible version.

Once inside we gathered around the activity table and had a look at the ingredients there. We had chocolate pudding (mud), coconut (feathers), sultanas (flies), jubes (gumnuts) and lolly snakes and worms (bugs). Each child was given a cup to mix up their own Wombat Stew in. They could add any ingredients they liked into the mix. When they had finished it didn’t look all that different to the mix we had made outside but it sure smelt and tasted better.

On another activity table we had set up some rocks and Artline textas and invited the children to make a wombat that rocks (pun intended)!

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