Storytime at the City of Playford | Wombat Stew 40th Anniversary

Wombat Stew 40th Anniversary Storytime Event at the City of Playford.

We enjoyed the ultimate morning of wombat related fun to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the much loved Australian children’s book, Wombat Stew! The City of Playford went all out for this special school holiday event and The Precinct provided the perfect location for fun, exploration and nature play.

Review by Angelica-Hazel Toutounji

When you write for a family friendly publication and attend a plethora of kid focused council and library events, they can start to all blend into each other. However, walking away from this Wombat Stew event, the kids remarked that this was the best library event they have ever been to.

The event included story time, crafting, nature play, sensory fun, real animals to interact with and a take home show bag, so its not hard to see why this event captured their attention. From a parent’s perspective, the event was well thought out, catered to different ages and interests, was educational, very economical at $5 per family and memorable enough to recommend to family and friends.

The Precinct in Smithfield Plains is a community hub with a strong wellbeing ethos at its heart. The Precinct includes an op shop, men’s shed, meetings spaces, a community garden, green space, a café and even something called The Healthy Food Co which offers low cost food products and grocery items to the community.

This event was a total sell out so we parked on the road and walked towards the grounds with other families. As we approached the grassy area we could see small chairs and mats were set out on the lawn for us to gather on. We placed our things down and each family was given a wombat themed show bag. This show bag contained a whole host of wombat related activities including play dough, the Wombat Stew book, colouring in paper, nature play activities and a recipe for wombat cookies which even generously included butter and eggs!

After getting comfortable on the mats and looking through the wombat show bag it wasn’t long before the story began. Wombat Stew is a much loved story by many and an Aussie classic. It was really nice to start the event in this way and for the story to be read whilst the children were attentive. The story is short, beautifully illustrated and includes various Australian animals. After the story finished Animals Anonymous brought out a real life wombat for everyone to see. This was incredibly exciting for all and there were lots of questions and pictures taken.

After the questions finished the children were able to enjoy the various craft activities laid out for them. There were three tables set up each with different crafting activities. Masks were made, wombats were coloured in and staff were on hand bringing out various animals for the children to meet and pat. Some of the animals included birds, a lizard and a big snake.

Attending with two little girls and one little boy can be challenging as they have very different interests. What really stood out with this event was how it catered to families of different ages. There was something for everyone and there was ample space and opportunity for exploration so you didn’t feel cramped or have to wait for ages for a turn.

After meeting the animals and doing the allocated craft activities, lots of families migrated to the community garden. This is a beautiful open space filled with flowers and plants with a mud kitchen, wooden tent and large play mushrooms at the back and sandpits set up with toys. This part of the event was a real highlight as the children loved finding acorns, making wombat poo, digging in the sand and running around in nature. From a parent perspective it’s nice attending events with a nature element as it provides a great opportunity for teaching children about the environment and where food comes from.

The event ran for a couple of hours but the time absolutely flew by. We had to peel the children away from the garden as lunch time was fast approaching, otherwise they could have stayed all day. The other notable part about this event was the incredible wombat show bag that was gifted to families. There was so much included in the small bag and the wombat activities kept the children entertained for hours. Being given a copy of the Wombat Stew book also meant that families can read the story again and again and be reminded of the memories made together.

All in all, it was a fantastic event and one worth looking out for in the future. For anyone interested in attending other events of this nature, you can follow the Playford Library on social media and sign up to receive their email newsletter to be the first to hear when events are released. The City of Playford offers an incredible range of events during the school holidays and throughout the school term too.

Location:

Playford Civic Library, 10 Playford library, Elizabeth

The Precinct, 112 Coventry Road, Smithfield Plains

For more information and all enquiries please visit the City of Playford website.

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go (unless specified).

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