Wonderful Wheels Day

On Wheels Day you get to bring your inline skates or skateboards or bikes to school. The idea is that you ride them around the playground all afternoon, while everyone else looks out their classroom windows and wishes they  were   having  a   Wonderful

Wheels Day too.

I've got a pair of Rollerblades in the back of a cupboard at home. They were a present for my last birthday. But I can't use them. I put them on once and I couldn't even stand up.

Our local school does have Wheels Days, just like in the book. You can take along bikes, scooters, roller blades, roller skates or skateboards.

Wellington is a great place to ride a scooter along the waterfront on a sunny day, but learning to ride a bike can be tricky. It's hilly, the roads are narrow and there is lots of traffic, so    not    many    children   bring

bikes to school.

Our two oldest children learnt to roller blade one Christmas. I can still remember them stagger­ing round the driveway or hanging onto their cousins as they tried to get their balance.

I put all these ideas together – different sorts of wheels, and how you learn to get along on them – and the result was Wonderful wheels day.

• Can you ride a skateboard? Have you ever tried ice-skating? What about roller skating or roller blading (sometimes called inline skating)?

If you've never tried, and you want to learn, check out some classes. Try googling "learn to skate" and the name of the place where you live.

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"The story is engagingly told in the first person and the antics of baby sister Claudia add an extra dimension to the humour. Bell's pop-eyed computer-generated cartoon characters colourfully complement the light-hearted text. Recommended for independent readers 6-8 years."
Talespinners, May 2004

Scholastic Teaching Notes
click to download

Reader's Activity Links

Here are some places where you can learn to skate in Wellington and Auckland,
New Zealand.