The Ugly Duckling

A little duckling who is always teased learns that he is a wonderful, beautiful creature!

About this Episode

A little duckling who is always teased learns that he is a wonderful, beautiful creature!

Snoriezzz, a children’s mindful bedtime podcast and part of the GoKidGo universe of shows for kids, is co-created and co-hosted by Academy Award Winning actor Marcia Gay Harden (she/her), and actor and comedian Natalie Peyton (she/her). Building love of self and love of sleep at the same time, the Snory godmothers use affirmations, calming routines, and a beautiful fairy tale to help you make bedtime the peaceful, bonding moment you need!

Snoriezzz Segments:

00:43 MINDFUL TALK

03:05 GROUNDING WITH YOUR SURROUNDINGS

04:32 SNORY UGLY DUCKLING

18:30 CALM YOUR BODY MEDITATION

You can always revisit the affirmations, Snory, or meditations as your little one needs! We’ve provided the timing for each segment above.

Host Snory godmother: Marcia Gay Harden (she/her)

Host Snory godmother: Natalie Peyton (she/her)

Segment music composition: Nana Simopoulos (she/her)

Story music composition and foley: Sterling Steffen (he/him)

Editing: Sterling Steffen

Cover art: Eulie Scheel (they/them)

Production Manager: Kyle Dempsey (he/him)

Branding/marketing: Julitta Scheel (she/her)

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Get ready for Connect & Learn! Where you and your adult dive deeper into the Snoriezzz episodes you’ve heard at bedtime or naptime!

Deep Dive
Mindful Affirmations
Play + Learn
Science Tips

WELCOME TO DENMARK! BUT…WHERE IS DENMARK ANYWAY?

The Ugly Duckling takes place in Denmark, a beautiful country ALL the way across the Atlantic Ocean, located in Europe! Denmark is made up of lots of islands, and it has tons of rivers and streams and canals. The fishing is great there, and Denmark is one of the biggest exporters of fish! It’s a super cool place, and we’ll tell you why – as we explore more about the beautiful land – in a minute!

But first, WHO WAS THE UGLY DUCKLING?

The Ugly Duckling is a young “duck” who gets teased by all the other ducks in the pond,
because he is different. So he leaves the pond and struggles to find family and friends as he grows up. This sweet story was written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, who actually based the story on his own childhood growing up in Denmark almost 200 years ago.

But what did Hans Christian Andersen have in common with a duck, you may ask? Well, Andersen was teased and bullied too! He was tall and gangly, and very uncomfortable
and awkward in school, and he stuck out like a sore thumb.

As a kid, his classmates were mean to him. For instance, Andersen was a talented singer and he loved the theater. He liked singing and acting and storytelling better than sports, which led to him being picked on and bullied because he was interested in doing different things than his
friends. This made him a big target for teasing and bullying.

Andersen felt just like the ugly duckling. But he rose above his struggles and wrote beautiful stories like The Ugly Duckling and other fairy tales. He used his own troubles and his feelings
and his history to write stories that we can relate to. Everyone loved his work and he eventually became famous and made nice money writing his stories. The Ugly Duckling is Andersen’s best loved story, probably because lots of kids have felt teased before too, and so they understand what the Duckling is going through. The Duckling learned to love himself, just like we can.

Let’s explore the magical land of Denmark and all it has to offer.

Denmark is unique in that it is made up of over 400 islands, the biggest one, the “mainland peninsula” is called “the Jutland Peninsula”. Many of the smaller islands surround the big Jutland Peninsula.

Can you say “peninsula”? It’s pronounced “pen-in-soo-lah”. The word “peninsula” means land that is surrounded by the sea or ocean on three sides. It’s almost like an island, surrounded by water, but connects to land on one side. In America, one of the most famous peninsulas is the
state of Florida – that’s where DisneyWorld is! Can you see how Denmark and Florida are similar?

They are both bordered on three sides by water! This is why the fishing is so good! There is so much water that they can catch all kinds of fish, like cod, mackerel, salmon, lobster, and herring

Denmark is filled with many beautiful landscapes. It has lots of streams, canals, grasslands, lagoons, and fjords (pronounced “Fee-yords”). A fjord is a long, narrow passage of a sea, bordered by high cliffs. These were created by glaciers melting at the end of the Ice Age, and boy do they look cool!

If you’re going to Denmark in the spring, fall or winter months, you may want to pack a jacket. Average temperatures September through May vary between 30°F and 55°F. That’s chilly!

In the summer months, Denmark warms up to a high average of about 72°F. You may want to bring a pair of pants along with your shorts and wimsuits, just in case there’s a cool breeze.

Culture

Denmark is located smack dab in the middle of Europe. Because of its location, it was easy for the French, English, German and a lot of other European people to travel through Denmark. As a result, Denmark became a big melting pot for culture, similar to the United States. All of the different Europeans from their different countries would travel to Denmark and share their music, art, food, and fashion with the Danish people!.

Because of all the many people from all the different countries sharing their ideas and education when they traveled through Denmark, Danish artists, writers and scientists were inspired to create beautiful art work and to make important scientific discoveries. The Danish people are super proud of this, because these beautiful works of art, and math and science discoveries helped make the world a better place, and advanced society.

Music

For instance, Denmark is home to music composer Carl Nielsen (1865 – 1931), who composed and conducted beautiful symphonies and classical music works. Here is Neilsen’s song “The Children are Playing” He first started playing violin when he was only six years old!

He had the measles and was sick at home, so his mother handed him a violin, and he learned a tune and played it, and in a few days he fell in love with the violin! Wow! At six years old he had already learned to do something he loved! He was very talented, and soon became successful with playing and conducting and composing music. Nielsen is considered one of the most famous Danish composers.

Buildings

In the architecture world, Denmark is home to some pretty neat cathedrals, opera houses and palaces. One cool new building is the Copenhagen Opera House. The opera house began construction in 2001, finished in 2004 and opened in January 2005. That’s a pretty fast turnaround when you see how massive it is!

Science

Denmark is also the homeland of the scientist Niels Bohr (1885 – 1962). Bohr was a famous scientist who made some important discoveries about teeny tiny little particles of energy called atoms. Atoms? What the heck is an atom? You can’t even see them with your own eyes! Well, think of this. If you have a magnet and you make it stick to your refrigerator…you can’t see what made it jump from your hand to the refrigerator, but it did! That’s because of atoms. You can’t see them, but they were the energy to make it jump and stick! Neil Bohr liked to figure out how energy works, and he even worked with a famous American scientist named Albert Einstein. Learning about the really small stuff helps us learn about the big stuff, like people, trees, and planets, and how we all interact with each other. Pretty neat, huh?

Traditions

Just like every other nation, Denmark has its own set of traditions and customs! Some of these traditions are linked to certain times of the year, and some traditions may sound a bit sillier than others. However, we all celebrate some silly traditions when you think about it, so let’s just have fun and celebrate them all!

One fun tradition that the people of Denmark celebrate is on New Years’ Eve. They jump into the new year – literally! In the minutes and seconds leading up to midnight, Danes, the people of Denmark, will start standing on chairs. At the stroke of midnight, Danes take the phrase “jump into the new year” literally by jumping from their chair at midnight, the start of the new year. Get it? Jumping into the New Year! Supposedly, it brings good luck all year long if you follow the tradition! But be careful where you’re jumping – you don’t want to start the year off with a broken toe!

Another fun Danish tradition is practiced on someone’s birthday. We all practice plenty of traditions around our birthdays, like singing “Happy Birthday”, and giving and opening up presents, and definitely eating sweet treats! Usually in the United States, the birthday child receives a cake, cupcakes or sweets from other people. But in Denmark, the birthday child actually is the one to bring the cake and sweet treats to their school or workplace. This is a wonderful way to show their childlike joy and spirit through the gift of sharing. As we always say, sharing is caring!

While we’re on the subject of birthdays, one final and interesting Danish tradition is practiced when a “single” Dane turns 25 years old. Now, by single, we mean the person is not in a romantic relationship. If a Danish person turns 25 and they happen to be single, it is the custom for their friends to cover them in cinnamon and parade them in the streets. What the heck? We usually like to put cinnamon on our toast, in our granola, or on our pastries – not on our friends! But this is a fun way for Danish people to celebrate turning 25, a big birthday year!

Food

The Danish people and nation of Denmark are also known for their wonderful, tasty food.

One of the classic Danish dishes is smørrebrød (pronounced “smoh-re-brohd”), which literally translates to “sandwich”. Now, smørrebrød are not regular sandwiches, but rather “open face” sandwiches. Imagine a piece of rye bread toast topped with ham, roast beef, eggs, shrimp and/or greens – that is what smørrebrød is like. These open face sandwiches have been a lunch favorite in Denmark for years, and continue to be one of the most popular dishes today.

Denmark is also very well-known for their pastries. Perhaps you’ve heard of a “Danish” pastry. These are circular-shaped, flaky pastries, usually topped with nuts, almonds, icing or sugar. These go very well with a well-balanced breakfast as a tasty treat to start the day, and are world famous for a reason – they’re super yummy! Next time you visit a coffee shop or bakery, ask for a Danish!

Art

Some of the most important artists coming from Denmark are the Skagen painters. This group of painters were popular many years ago because they painted the beautiful Danish landscape, the mountains and beaches and little harbors with boats bobbing in them.

You may be wondering, “What the heck is Skagen?” We asked ourselves the same exact thing! Skagen, as it turns out, is the northernmost town in mainland Denmark. Skagen is the town located at the tip of the Jutland Peninsula, known for its trading ports, white-sand beaches, and artists – the Skagen painters!

This painting shown below, titled, Summer Evening at Skagen’s Beach by P.S. Krøyer (1851 – 1909), shows a couple dressed in fancy clothing walking along the white, sandy beaches of Skagen. This work is a perfect example of Skagen painters’ work – people shown interacting with a beautiful, natural backdrop.

Castles

Denmark is home to quite a few grand and ginormous castles. Have you heard the word ginormous? It’s a combination of the words “giant” and “enormous.” That means anything that we call ginormous is really, really, REALLY big.

One ginormous castle in Denmark is called the Frederiksborg Castle. Frederiksborg Castle is a popular attraction for tourists and it is only a couple hours away from Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark.

The Frederiksborg Castle is so big it is built on three small islands in Hillerød, Denmark. Can you imagine? The Castle takes up three islands? Amazing! It was built almost 500 years ago, but has had to be rebuilt and repaired several times. It has beautiful gardens right by the sea, lovely pastures and seaside walks. It’s the perfect destination for a day trip!

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, and it’s a lovely, happy city! Do you know this song?

Copenhagen is one of the oldest cities in Scandinavia, it has beautiful cobblestone streets, everyone rides bikes there, It has two amusement parks, lovely churches and yummy restaurants, and a very sweet statue of “The Little Mermaid”, from another story by Hans Christian Andersen. We hope you go visit Denmark one day!

THANKS FOR JOINING US! PLEASE ENJOY THE PLAY AND LEARN!

The Ugly Duckling: Mindful Affirmations

Embrace the Power of Affirmations!

Imagine a world where your child starts and ends each day with positivity and confidence! By weaving affirmations into their daily routines, children can boost their self-esteem, build resilience, and cultivate a growth mindset. These skills empower them to face life’s challenges with courage and optimism.

Bedtime Bliss and Breakfast Boost:

Why not make affirmations a delightful part of your family’s routine? Enjoy these uplifting phrases together before bed, creating a peaceful atmosphere for sweet dreams. Then, share them again at breakfast to set a positive tone for the day ahead.

You can inspire our little ones to shine bright and embrace every opportunity that comes their way! 🌟

Play & Learn

Download Play & Learn PDFs
Go on a Family Bike Ride!	Download Now
Swan Coloring Page	Download Now
Duckling Coloring Page	Download Now
Duck Family and Swan Coloring Page	Download Now
Rubber Ducky Race	Download Now
Create a Paper Plate Swan	Download Now
Ugly Duckling Footprint Duck Craft	Download Now

Snoriezzz Science Tip

Sleep helps you feel a sense of belonging

Sleep helps us feel like we belong and hugely impacts our emotions. Good sleep makes us less anxious and being less anxious helps you sleep better!

Sleep is so important in helping us feel good about ourselves. Good sleep even gives us positive experiences with our friends and family.

When we take care of our bodies and our minds with healthy food and exercise, we sleep better! When we don’t, we sleep poorly.

The way we take care of our physical and mental health reflectsitself in how we feel about ourselves on the inside, and how weinteract with the outside world.

When we are healthy and get enough sleep, we can be the bestversion of ourselves! It even helps us make friends, have controlover our emotions, and be nice to our families.

Quality sleep is the best thing we can do so we can show upand support all the wonderful people in our lives!

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The Ugly Duckling

About this Episode

Share with a Friend

Get ready for Connect & Learn! Where you and your adult dive deeper into the Snoriezzz episodes you’ve heard at bedtime or naptime!

WELCOME TO DENMARK! BUT…WHERE IS DENMARK ANYWAY?

But first, WHO WAS THE UGLY DUCKLING?

Let’s explore the magical land of Denmark and all it has to offer.

Culture

Music

Buildings

Science

Traditions

Food

Art

Castles

Copenhagen

THANKS FOR JOINING US! PLEASE ENJOY THE PLAY AND LEARN!

The Ugly Duckling: Mindful Affirmations

Play & Learn

Snoriezzz Science Tip

Sleep helps you feel a sense of belonging

Discover More Podcasts

Little Bo Peep

The Selfish Giant

Three Little Pigs

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