Daycare Lesson Plans on “Where the Wild Things Are”

This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.

These Daycare Lesson Plans on “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak present wonderful opportunities to explore feelings, fantasy, and creativity. Unique daycare lesson plans can help you stay motivated and inspired while giving your kids rich opportunities for learning.

“Where the Wild Things Are” is a beloved children’s book filled with imagination, emotion, and adventure. With its rich illustrations and simple story, it offers many teachable moments about behavior, emotions, family, and imagination.

Where the Wild Things Are

I like to start every lesson plan I create with a book. So creating these lesson plans based on children’s classics has been a lot of fun. “Where the Wild Things Are” is a super fun one, so grab a copy and let’s get started.

Start your week of themed lessons by reading the book aloud. Use expressive voices and ask questions throughout to encourage engagement. After reading, talk with the children about Max and the choices he made. Ask them how Max felt when he was angry, when he was with the Wild Things, and when he returned home.

Encourage them to share a time when they felt similar emotions. Reread the book each day, focusing on different aspects, illustrations, vocabulary, or sequencing, to deepen understanding.

Introduce new words from the story such as rumpus, wild, king, forest, lonely, and supper. Use pictures and props to explain the meaning of each word. Incorporate vocabulary into daily routines. For example, during snack time you might say, “It’s time for your supper, just like Max.” Reinforce the new vocabulary through songs, games, and storytelling throughout the week.

For a printable two week lesson plan (8 days) including a supply list and daily schedule that has the ELGs listed for Oklahomas QRIS program, check out this Etsy listing for Daycare Lesson Plans on “Where the Wild Things Are”.

Literacy Extensions

Create a class book titled “Where Our Wild Things Are.” Let each child draw their own Wild Thing and dictate a short sentence about it. Compile the pages and read the book as a group, then send a digital copy home to parents.

Practice name recognition by creating personalized “King of the Wild Things” crowns. Children can trace or stamp their names as part of the activity. You can use strips of construction paper glued together for the band. Then decorate as you’d like.

Wild Feelings

Max experiences strong emotions like anger, excitement, joy, and loneliness. Talk about these feelings with the children. Create a “Feelings Chart” and allow kids to place their name or picture next to how they’re feeling.

Use mirrors to help them identify emotions in their own facial expressions. Have them make mad faces, happy faces, sad faces and more.

Provide puppets or stuffed animals to let them act out different emotions and scenarios, helping build empathy and emotional literacy.

Dramatic Play and Dress-Up

Set up a dramatic play area where children can become Wild Things. Provide crowns, monster masks, fuzzy tails, and animal costumes. Include a sailboat made from cardboard or a laundry basket, and let them “sail” to the land of the Wild Things. Create a simple throne for Max to sit on and encourage children to take turns being the “King of All Wild Things.” Offer prompts like “How does the King rule the Wild Things?” and “What rules will you make?”

Art Activities

Invite children to create their own Wild Thing using crayons, markers, paint, or collage materials. Provide various textures like feathers, felt, and yarn for monster fur. Cut out different shapes to form body parts, horns, tails, claws, and let children assemble their monsters.

Create sailboats from construction paper or cardboard and use blue fabric or paper for the “ocean” in your classroom.

Offer a group mural project where everyone contributes to creating the “forest” Max traveled through. Use real leaves, twigs, and green paint to make a large collaborative art piece.

Music and Movement

Play music and have a “Wild Rumpus” just like in the story. Encourage children to dance freely with scarves or instruments. Use drums, tambourines, and maracas to create a wild rhythm section. You can even use pots and wooden spoons for a jungle sound.

Play follow-the-leader or freeze dance while pretending to be Wild Things.

Add a quieter music component where children sway gently to calming music, imagining they are on a boat sailing back home. This contrast helps children understand how music and movement can match different moods and parts of a story.

Sensory Play

Set up a sensory bin filled with green rice or shredded paper to represent the forest. Hide small Wild Thing figurines, leaves, sticks, and sailboats inside. Provide spoons, tweezers, and scoops for fine motor development.

Offer a water table with small sailboats and blue water beads to simulate the ocean Max sailed across. Or you can just use plain water. Add animal figures or laminated images of Max and the Wild Things.

Another idea is to make “monster dough” by mixing green or purple play dough with glitter and googly eyes. Let kids mold their own Wild Thing creatures or forest elements like trees and vines.

Gross Motor Activities

Create an obstacle course that simulates Max’s journey. Have children crawl through caves (tunnels), jump over logs (pool noodles), and sail across an imaginary ocean (blue mats or blankets). Pretend to swing from tree to tree or stomp like Wild Things.

Play a “Wild Thing Says” game, similar to Simon Says. Encourage kids to make monster movements, such as stomping feet, waving arms, or growling.

Let children build their own forest or Wild Thing world using large cardboard boxes, pillows, blankets, and scarves to create dens and hideouts.

Fine Motor Activities

Have kids cut out pictures of Wild Things and glue them into a story sequence. This builds scissors skills and understanding of narrative order. You can trace them from the book.

Offer Wild Thing-themed puzzles or coloring pages that reinforce story elements and encourage concentration and hand-eye coordination.

Wild Things Math and Counting

Incorporate counting by using monster-themed manipulatives like mini monster erasers or toy creatures. Ask children to count how many Wild Things they see in a picture or how many claws or horns their own drawing has.

Create monster faces with these monster sticker sheets.

Use sorting trays to group Wild Things by size, color, or number of features (e.g., tails, eyes).

Create a graph based on favorite parts of the story, voting for the wild rumpus, sailing home, or wearing a crown. Discuss the results as a group.

Science Exploration

Talk about real wild things, animals! Compare story monsters to real animals like lions, bears, or gorillas. Look at pictures or videos and discuss how animals live in the wild.

Explore the ocean with a lesson on boats and sailing. Show photos of different types of boats and let kids experiment with which materials float or sink. Make simple boats out of paper or cork and try floating them in water bins.

Explore shadows using flashlights and cutout monster shapes. Ask children what would happen if Max sailed at night. Let them make shadow puppets to tell parts of the story.

Where the Wild Things Are Snack Ideas

Make a “wild snack mix” by combining cereals, dried fruit, and pretzels. Let children scoop their own mix into cups. Or you could have children each bring an item to add to the mix and call it monster friendship mix.

Create monster-faced rice cakes using cream cheese, shredded carrots, olives, and sliced fruit. Let each child decorate their own edible Wild Thing.

Serve “supper” on a plate just like Max’s return meal, and talk about healthy food choices. You can pretend to cook and serve the meal in the dramatic play area as well.

Parent Involvement

Send home a family activity sheet with a prompt like “Draw your own Wild Thing together” or “Talk about what helps you calm down when you feel wild.”

Invite parents to a “Wild Rumpus Party” at the end of the week. Kids can perform a dance, show off their masks or crowns, and display their artwork. Serve wild snacks and read the book together as a community.

Share photos of the week’s activities with parents through a newsletter or digital platform so they can see the learning and fun happening each day.

Daycare Lesson Plans on Children’s Favorites

For more story stretcher lesson plan ideas based on classic children’s stories, check these out:

• Daycare Lesson Plans on “Goodnight Moon”
• Join baby Llama and his mama as they work through emotional regulation, patience, and trust in these Daycare Lesson Plans on “Llama Llama Red Pajama”
• Daycare Lesson Plans on “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
• Daycare Lesson Plans on “The Very Busy Spider”
• Daycare Lesson Plans on The Cat in the Hat
• Daycare Lesson Plans on “Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons”
• Daycare Lesson Plans on “The Little Engine That Could”.