books/poems

One of our books this week was ”Not A Box” by Antoinette Portis, also the author of “Not A Stick”.  Who hasn’t at one time in their lives preferred to play with the box more than the gift inside?  In “Not A Box” , the simple stick figure rabbit imagines his/her box is a boat, a rocket ship, robot; everything but a box.  Of course in “Not a Stick”  the stick is a sword, fishing pole, conductors baton…..  I love these books and so do the kids.  It’s an open invitation to imagine whatever they like.

From Collages

 

 

Since we did this project I’ve had some feedback from parents and actually got to see how the kids are playing with their “boxes”.  Emma turned her house upside down, and turned it into a “SUV”  she doesn’t have a SUV but that’s what she told me she was putting her stuffed animals in.  In they went , Emma joined them and took them for a drive.  In and out, in and out up and over, she had lots of fun with her box (not a box)car.  Emma’s box was just a box with a door cut into it.  River’s box was a little more sophisticated.  She had a windshield and steering wheel.  I’m told she has been “driving” all over town.  What started as a fun painting project at camp lives on at home.

We also decorated little “treasure” boxes….glue, glitter, sequins, stickers!!!!  what fun

We’ve been “working” in the garden.  This day we moved buckets of compost down to our new kids’ strawberry patch.  Everyone was intrigued by the worms.  Katie used her hat to hold her temporary collection of worms.

 

From st gardening worms etc

 Here’s a new favorite song from the very sweet book “Wiggle and Waggle” by Caroline Arnold 

A Digging Song

We wiggle and waggle, squiggle and squirm. 

 Digging in the dirt is the life of a worm. 

We Dig and we sing all day long,

Our wiggly, waggly, gardening song.

 

 

 

I read some poetry to the kids today.  They liked it, the moms liked it, I liked it………….

 

My Favorite Word

There is one word-

My favorite-

The very, very best.

It isn’t No or Maybe.

It’s Yes, Yes, Yes,Yes, YES!

“Yes, yes, you may,” and

“Yes, of course,” and

“Yes, please help yourself.”

And when I want a piece of cake,

“Why, yes.  It’s on the shelf.”

Some Candy?  “Yes.”

A cookie? “Yes.”

A movie?  “Yes, we’ll go.”

I love it when they say my word:

Yes, Yes, YES! (Not No.)

                                            Lucia and James L. Hymes, Jr.

TREE HOUSE

A tree house, a free house,

A secret you and me house,

A high up in the leafy branches

Cozy as can be house

A street house, a neat house,

Be sure and wipe your feet house

Is not my kind of house at all-

Let’s go live in a tree house.

                                                                  Shel Silverstein