Little Ted was feeling creative but he didn’t know what to make. He wasn’t in the mood to draw a picture or glue some boxes together and he had run out of glitter.

“What can I make?” Little Ted asked his Mummy “I don’t know what to do.”

“Why don’t you do some painting?” his Mummy suggested.

“No, too messy. I might get paint on my hands and I’ve just washed them.” Little Ted replied.

“How about building something out of LEGO then” his Mummy tried again.

“No, I’ve lost the wheels for my LEGO mining truck so I don’t want to play with it until I find them.”

“What about play dough” said his Mummy, hoping for 3rd time lucky.

“YES” Little Ted said “I haven’t made anything with play dough for ages” and he went and got the box out of the cupboard. Inside were smaller tubs with different colours of play doh, a selection of cookie cutters in different shapes and a small rolling pin. Then he carefully cleared a space on the special table he used for all his craft stuff and was ready to start. 

Then he paused and looked at his Mummy for inspiration about what play dough masterpieces to create.

“See how many different animals you can make. When you’re finished we’ll have a guessing game of how many I recognise” suggested his Mummy rather cheekily.

Little Ted started by rolling a ball of play dough between his palms until it became a long thin snake then he wound this up and turned it into a snail. He then made a spider, a rabbit and an octopus which looked quite like his spider.  Next he got his cookie cutters and found one for a duck and another of a dog, although if he stretched the legs it also looked a bit like a horse. Little Ted spent ages making and re-shaping his animals until he was happy and while he was working ,he started having imaginary conversations with them.

“Look Rabbit, here comes Horse – he’s looking for some hay, will we make him some? What’s that? You’re hungry too. Don’t worry, I’ll make you a carrot although you’d better watch out in case Horse wants to eat that as well. Hurry up Snail, you’re very slow. Look out or Horse will stand on you and squish you flat. “

“You’ve been working hard” said his Mummy. “Are you ready for me to guess what they all are yet? 

“Okay” Little Ted said “What’s this?” and he pointed at the dog.

“That’s easy, that looks like Milo the dog who lives across the street. But what’s that?” she asked pointing at Horse “Is that a giant Milo?” 

“No Mummy, that’s Horse, he likes hay and carrots.”

“Oh I see that now. And have you made two spiders or is one another creature with the same number of legs that lives under the sea?”

“That’s Olly the octopus and don’t say he looks like a spider because you’ll hurt his feelings” Little Ted said. “He told me that an Octopus is much cleverer than a spider.”

“Aah I thought they must be magical animals because I heard you talking to them.”

“I like talking to the animals” Little Ted said “they are good listeners, even if I’ve forgotten to give them any ears. I think I will read them a story once I’ve finished.”

“That’s a good idea. Do you know what book you will choose?”

“Yes” Little Ted replied “It’s called Magic Animal Friends.”

The End