Hedgehog Crafts and Learning Activities

Harriet Dancing

Children of all ages will love Harriet Dancing by Ruth Symes. The pictures are simple and adorable, and the story will touch their hearts.

Harriet the hedgehog sees hundreds of butterflies dancing in the sunshine, and can't help but stop and dance with them. She twists and turns and skips and hops. She is the happiest hedgehog in all the world. But then she notices that the butterflies have stopped dancing, and she is dancing all alone. She asks the butterflies to dance with her, but they say they don't want to because they only dance with butterflies. This made Harriet very sad. Harriet hurries away as fast as she can so the butterflies won't see her crying.

Later she meets her friends and they start dancing together. The butterflies see how much fun they are having and ask if they can join in. Harriet says, "Of course!" without hesitation,
"Dancing's for everyone, BIG and small. Dancing's for sharing with one and all."

After reading this story make the dancing hedgehog craft below and talk about discrimination.

Hedgehog Bakes a Cake

This humorous book will delight your children. Hedgehog decides he wants to make a cake when a friend knocks on the door and tells him that he knows how to make a cake. He dumps some ingredients in a bowl, but has to leave before he is finished, leaving hedgehog to figure out the rest of the recipe. But soon squirrel drops by and is able to help him finish the batter. Owl sticks her head in, butters the pan, and turns the oven on way too high, and then has to leave. Hedgehog is left with lumpy batter and a messy kitchen. He throws away the batter and makes a cake using his recipe. He cleans up the kitchen just in time for his friends to come back and have a piece of cake. All his friends are proud of how they helped make such a delicious cake. Hedgehog thanks them all and declares, "Next time I will try to do it all by myself." Ready-to-Read Book

A yellow cake recipe is included at the end of the book so you can make a cake too.

Porcupining - A Prickly Love Story

Cushion the porcupine is lonely. He lives in a petting zoo but no one is aloud to touch or pet him. One especially long, lonely night he makes up a little ditty about being lonely, and decides it's time to go out and look for a wife.

He meets a rabbit, a pig, and a beaver and sings each of them a special song, not realizing that his songs are offensive to them. Finally he meets a hedgehog that is just as lonely as he is. He sings her a special song. And, of course, they end up together.

This is an excellent book to help your children practice writing. Have them think of another animal that the porcupine might have met that night, and then write a song using rhyming words replacing the second and third lines of the song.

I've been so lonesome all my life.
I guess I can't be picky.
I'm porcupining for a wife,
And rabbits aren't too icky.

They may also want to illustrate a page that could be included in the book using their animal and song.

Hedgehog for Breakfast

Papa fox decides he would like to have Mrs. Hedgehog for breakfast so he tells his children to go and invite her to their house. The children don't understand why their father would want to eat a hedgehog, but they do as they are told.

The suspense begins when the children arrive home with Mrs. Hedgehog but their parents aren't there. They decide that they should begin the preparations, and Mrs. Hedgehog, not knowing their intentions, goes along with them. Their father saves the gullible hedgehog from the oven just in time. And they all sit down and have a wonderful breakfast.

Talk to your children about idioms. Discuss how sometimes people don't always mean what they seem to say.