Additional Learning Resources for The Wind in the Willows Artistic Study Guide by The Build Your Masterpiece Class

Chapter 2: The Open Road

Today we are reading Chapter 2 in the Wind and the Willows, titled "The Open Road" and during this chapter, Mr. Toad does some interesting and kind of crazy things. In that spirit, we are going to have a real hands-on activity and art project today, where we will take out our tinfoil, build large balls, hammer them down to the shape of a car, play cars down the hallway, and then make them crash!

Enjoy this Read Aloud of Chapter 2:

Listen to this chapter by following along with your own copy of the book, or enjoy listening while you create your art project, below.

Discussion Ideas:

Why it's important to drive safe, back long ago, cars werenot as common as they are today, and many people didnt have one, and those people enjoyed the ways of the past, and not doing such dangerous things. Recall the things Ratty and Mole enjoyed, instead of racing cars? What would you enjoy doing if you did not have a car?

Optional: Pick a sentence from this chapter for copy-work.

Find more to do with vocabulary words, sentences, spelling bees and more with Vocabulary.com

Art Project: Tinfoil Cars

Supplies Needed:

Tinfoil

Wooden Mallet

Use your tinfoil to build a shape of a car. You will begin by creating a large ball of tinfoil. Continue to add layer after layer, making your ball as large as you would like. Once you have it to the size of ball you like, start molding it to look like the shape of a car. Take your wooden mallet, or hammer, and begin pounding out the shape.

Next, take your car for a 'joy ride' down the hall, and crash it into the wall, just like toad did. How crazy and fun. Observe and discuss the outcome, and your feelings regarding your car being crashed, and what you think Mr.Toad should have done.

In the Kitchen: Make Road Trip Snack Mix

Additional Books for this Chapter:

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Chapter 2

Cars Rushing! Honking! Zooming! By Patricia Hubbell

Tin Lizzie by Peter Spier

Henry Ford: Big Wheel in the Auto Industry by Mike Venezia

The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race by Jan and Stan Berenstain

If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen

Inventor's Secret: What Thomas Edison Told Henry Ford by Suzanne Slade