Author, Craig Smith Entertains

What only has three legs and one eye, likes to listen to country music and smells really bad? A stinky dinky, honky tonky, winky, wonky donkey of course! Armed with his guitar, a number of puppets and costumes, well-known children’s author and singer-songwriter, Mr Craig Smith performed for our Preschoolers yesterday, along with the Year 0-3 students from the Boys’ and Girls’ Schools. The students were captivated as he sang from his repertoire of humorous and catchy songs about his favourite characters. 

Mr Smith performed all his children’s books starting with the absolute favourite ‘Wonky Donkey song,’ which was written after hearing the joke, ‘what do you call a donkey with three legs?’ The students enjoyed joining in on the actions and singing along, with some students assisting Mr Craig by being a puppeteer. Other songs enjoyed were ‘Willbee the Bumblebee’, ‘My Daddy ate an Apple’, ‘Square Eyes’, ‘Eating’ and Mr Smith’s recently launched book called ‘The Scariest Thing in the Garden’. ‘Kaha the Kea’ saw the arrival of a very large Kea from the South Island who danced and high fived the children.

After the performance, Craig opened the floor for a question and answers session. Even though these were our younger students, they all had well thought out, intriguing questions. At the close of the show, Craig went over to the Preschool to have photos with the children in their ‘Craig Smith’ room full of excellent artwork the children had made of all his song characters, including one of Craig himself. 

The interactive show was full of fun, energy and so much laughter, the children will talk about for the rest of the year!

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