D.W. on Ice

Summary
D.W. boasts about her skills at ice skating for an upcoming ice skating party, but becomes worried that her friends will find out that she is giving false information and cannot skate well.

Plot
Arthur starts the introduction by saying "Wouldn't it be great if you only had to do something a few times to be really good at it?" He goes on pretending that he is a master golfer, fluent in French, and great at art without ever practicing. "But life just isn't like that," he says, "unless you're D.W." The scene then changes to show D.W. bossing Emily around for criticizing her artwork. "What do you mean my drawing doesn't look like a cat? It's perfect! Everything I do is perfect!", she yells.

D.W. on Ice

During recess at Elwood Community Preschool, D.W. and James are making a snowman (James is doing all the work while D.W.'s telling him what to do). Emily's handing out invitations to her midwinter-party that's coming up on Saturday—Emily tells D.W. and James (who each receive an invitation) that it's going to be an ice skating party. Timmy and Tommy Tibble also each get an invitation to the party, and they're excited about ice skating since they already play ice hockey. When the twins offer to teach some of their moves to D.W., she declines, claiming that she's got moves of her own—D.W. claims that she's been ice skating since she was three and boasts that she's probably the best ice skater in the entire preschool. After the Tibbles leave (after smashing James and D.W.'s snowman with their sled) and Emily goes to finish handing out the rest of the invitations to her party, James laments that he'll be the only kid at the party who won't be able to ice skate. Feeling bad for him, D.W. offers to give James private lessons before the party on Saturday.

Later that day, when Arthur finally gets home from school and is taking off his jacket, hat and gloves, D.W. (sliding around on the floor without her shoes on) slams into her brother. Though D.W. tries scolding her brother for not being more cautious at the "ice rink", Arthur scolds his sister for what she's doing, pointing out that their house isn't an ice rink and notes that she could get hurt if she continues what she's doing now. D.W. explains to Arthur that she's going to be giving James a private ice skating lesson the next day and that she's practicing now due to being "a little rusty" when it comes to ice skating. Arthur reminds his sister that she's only ever gone ice-skating three other times in her life and that after the last time they went ice-skating, she ate dinner standing up because she was too sore to sit down. D.W. doesn't see the big deal about this and claims that she's a natural when it comes to ice skating.

That night, while being tucked into bed, Jane assures D.W. that her ice skates are all prepped and ready to go for tomorrow. As she is sleeping, D.W. dreams about showing up the Tibble Twins at Emily's ice skating party while defending James from them and being the best ice skater at the party.

The next day, D.W. meets James at the rink for their private lesson. However, it turns out that D.W.'s not as good as she claims to be at ice skating, as she falls as soon as she enters the rink and keeps falling more and more as the "lesson" goes on, making wilder excuses as the day goes on. James turns out to be pretty good at ice skating (he at least doesn't fall as frequently as D.W. does). The Tibble Twins soon show up and laugh at D.W.'s falls, and she calls James a terrible student, asking her mom to go back home. When D.W. enters her room, Nadine (who's painting her toenails) asks D.W. how it went. D.W. admits that it didn't go well and confesses to Nadine that she's a terrible ice skater, acknowledging that she's not as good as she boasted to her classmates. Worried about what might happen at the party, Nadine gives D.W. the idea to try and convince Emily to have a different kind of party.

The next day when they're at preschool, D.W. gives Emily a brochure that shows a Mary Moo Cow-themed party. While Emily notes that it certainly seems fun, she explains to D.W. that it's too late to change the party, as her mother has already booked the ice rink and everything else for it—though Emily considers having a Mary Moo Cow-themed party for her end-of-winter party. Later on, D.W. has another dream about the party, but this time, D.W.'s skating terribly while everyone else is skating perfectly—D.W. keeps falling until Emily asks her to leave the party, but when D.W. can't get up to leave the rink, the Tibbles shown up with a crane, using it to carry D.W. back home and put her on the Reads' frozen kiddie pool, but D.W. can't even stand up on that ice.

On the morning of the party, D.W. tries pretending to be sick in order to get out of attending the party. Jane knows that D.W. isn't really sick and asks why she doesn't want to go to the party anymore, as she really seemed to be looking forward to the party before. D.W. initially refuses to explain why, so Arthur says it for her: D.W. doesn't want to go to the party anymore because she realized that she's not nearly as good at ice skating as she thought she was. This makes D.W. mad, so Jane makes Arthur to give D.W. a final lesson before the party to help her feel better. At the ice rink, Arthur's able to teach his sister how to stop, turn and slow down on her own, but D.W. wants him to teach her how to do fancy tricks, which Arthur doesn't know how to do. Arthur points out to his sister that you need to learn the basics before you can do any of the fancier/more complicated moves. D.W. ultimately goes to the party while still worrying about her skills.

During the party, D.W. is sitting by herself on a bench. When Emily skates up to her and asks her why she's not skating, D.W. fibs by claiming that she hurt her leg doing a fancy ice skating move. James soon shows up and sits on the bench next to her, saying that he won't skate because he was a terrible student. D.W. feels guilty about this and admits that he's not bad at ice skating—she only said that he was a terrible student because she was jealous of the fact that he was doing better than she was. When D.W. and James look out at their classmates and see that none of the other students (including Emily and the Tibble Twins) are doing as well as they thought they would, James offers to skate with D.W., so at least she won't look as silly falling as she would if she were by herself. D.W. accepts this and the pair finally join their classmates.

Characters

 * D.W. Read
 * James MacDonald
 * Emily
 * Arthur Read
 * Jane Read
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Liam (cameo)
 * Maryann (cameo)
 * Marie-Helene (cameo)
 * Kyle (cameo)
 * Lucy (cameo)
 * Amanda Hulser (cameo)
 * Mrs. MacDonald (cameo)
 * Unknown Female Rabbit (Number 14) (cameo)
 * Unknown Female Rabbit (Number 5) (cameo)
 * Unknown Female Adult Rabbit (Number 5) (cameo)
 * Unknown Male Adult Rabbit (Number 4) (cameo)

Trivia

 * In this episode D.W. claims that she couldn't skate, yet in the opening of "Buster's Special Delivery," she is seen to be a better skater than Arthur. Thought considering that was just the opening, it could be seen as non-canon.
 * D.W. doesn't wear a helmet while skating, and neither do her friends. They should've all been wearing helmets while skating on ice, because if they didn't, then they could've easily gotten injured from falling down so much, which is what helmets are made to prevent. They also prevent the kids from hitting their heads on the ice if they ever fall down backwards.

Episode connections

 * A reference to "Arthur's Chicken Pox" is made when D.W. tries faking sick by initially claiming she has the chicken pox, to which Jane points out that you only get those once over the course of your life.

Home Video
DVD: Other formats:
 * Arthur: Season 11
 * Arthur Favorites: Volume 1 (LeapFrog)