Celebrating Poetry and the Outdoors

   

Being outdoors has always been Emmy's favorite thing to do.  From a very young age, her curiosity led her to explore nature in wide open spaces and in little nooks and crannies. Today Emmy still enjoys being outside, but I am starting to see a difference in how she relates to nature.  The magic of fairies and gnomes hidden amongst the flowers and leaves is disappearing and in its place is more of a scientific approach to life around her.  I hear things like, "Did you know that sand is made up of millions of tiny rocks?  Did you know that the anther is the part of the flower that produces pollen?  Did you know that there are more than 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth?"  I know that these facts are important and am grateful that she is interested in learning these things, but I am a believer that life is magical and will continue to encourage her to look at things in a variety of different ways (not black or white).  For example, we know that an orb web is made of spirals and is used to catch prey, but seeing an orb web in the early morning mist is magical as the first rays of the morning sun hit its spirals and creates shimmers of gold.

Emmy has attended a Montessori school for the past six years (pre-school through second grade). Going out and exploring nature has always been a part of her school day.  It is understood that fresh air along with children's natural desire to explore their surroundings is beneficial to their growth and learning. Montessori believes that to delight in the wonder of the natural world at a tender and impressionable age is to become a steward to the earth in the years to come. I will be forever grateful to all of her Montessori teachers for gifting Emmy with the awareness that nature doesn't belong to us, but rather that we are responsible for its care.  

This past school year, Emmy spent a lot of time immersed in poetry.  It wasn't just a unit to teach, a box to be checked off, but rather a time to delve into the beauty of words - sweet, juicy, interesting words.  Through read alouds, the poems came to life begging Emmy to dive in.  Through writing, poetry became a way for Emmy to express herself.  By using mentor texts, Emmy began to understand the different ways that poets put words together. Through reciting poems, Emmy realized that the rhythm and rhyme of poetry was a fun way to play with words.  Through drama, Emmy took her love of poetry to a dramatic level by creating little skits to go along with the poems.  In the spring, the children helped to organize a Poetry Tea as a celebration of all that they had learned.  From the invitations to the set up of the classroom, the children were involved in the process.  It may have been lacking a smoky atmosphere and the adornment of berets, but it felt very "beatnik" anyway.  The children each took a turn reading from their hand sewn poetry books where they had written five types of poems such as a couplet and a diamante.  The look of pride on their faces as they stood before a large group of adults and read their poems was a joy to witness.  Also part of the Poetry Tea was food and drinks.  When we arrived, Emmy greeted us and showed us to our table.  She then went and got the snacks and served us hot tea with honey, lemon and/or sugar.  It was such a sweet celebration.  Emmy continues to find poetry wherever we go from noticing words that rhyme to making very poetic remarks such as, "Doesn't the color of the sun have a shade as deep red as a beautiful Poppy in spring."  When she carries what she has learned in school into her day to day life, I know that learning has really occurred. A love of poetry has truly been instilled in her being and I, again, thank her teachers for helping to facilitate this love.  Please take a moment to watch this video of Emmy as she reads her poems at Inn Street Montessori's Lower Elementary Poetry Tea.

 

Ever since her work with poetry at school, Emmy has become interested in books that hold collections of poems.  We have quite a collection of poetry books including Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Shel Silverstein and Mattie Stepanek.  Stepanek has been described as a peacemaker, a philosopher and a prophet.  He suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy and died in 2004 at the age of thirteen. His poems are full of messages of peace and love.  Stepanek called his poems heartsongs.  

"A heartsong doesn't have to be a song in your heart, " he said.  "It doesn't have to be 

talking about love and peace.  It can just be your message.  It can be your feeling.  

Some people might even call it a conscience."  

At a very early age, Stepanek developed his personal life philosophy summed up in the following quote,                                              "Remember to play after every storm."  

You can read more about Mattie Stepanek and his books of poetry and essays titled, Heartsongs, (all NY Times bestsellers) on his website.  

With Emmy's love of the outdoors,  I searched for poetry books that focused on nature. These two books stood out as winners.

The first one is A Stick is an Excellent Thing (poems celebrating outdoor play) by Marilyn Singer with illustrations by LeUyen Pham.  

This book of poetry celebrates universal types of play that are timeless and engaging no matter what generation is participating.  From organized games like jumping rope, hop scotch and hide-and-seek to imaginative games like making mud soup and turning sticks into magic wands, the poems held within these pages invite children to join in the fun.

A Stick is an Excellent Thing

A stick is an excellent thing,

If you find the perfect one.

It's a scepter for a king,

A stick is an excellent thing.

It's a magic wand, It's yours to fling,

To strum a fence, to draw the sun,

A stick is an excellent thing,

If you find the right one.  

(Click HERE for our post about the book Not a Stick)

The second one is Outside Your Window (a first book of nature) by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld.  Hearld's juicy layered collages bring the poems to life.  Davies, a zoologist and best known for writing books about science, finds a way to bring amazing facts and fun things to do in her poetry writing. The book cycles through the seasons with a good number of poems focused on each one.  I like that the poems do not always follow a rhyming format, but instead bring about vivid images through colorful language.  

Honey

Buzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz

It's coming from the beehive

It sounds like sweetness

And the sleepy, sleepy summer

Hmmmm mmm

The bees bring nectar from the flowers

For miles around and in the hive,

They make it into honey.

Buzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz

Hmmmmm mmm

The sound of sweetness and the smell of flowers

Of sunny, sleepy summer -

The sound of honey.

Emmy and I hope that we have inspired you to enjoy the poetry of nature!  I leave you with a quote by one of my favorite philosophers and the person that my Emmy is named after, Ralph Waldo Emerson.    

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." 

Summertime

It's Summertime!

     

Plum Island ~ Massachusetts

What Emmy loves about SUMMER...lazy days, flip flops, 

chocolate ice cream, juicy watermelon, swimming pools, walks in the woods, bike riding, 

the ocean:  the smell of the warm sea breezes, the sound of the crashing waves, 

the warm sand between her toes and so much more.  SUMMER!  

With more time spent outdoors during the summer, we find ourselves working to create moments in the day for reading and creating indoors (quite different from wintertime when we work on creating moments to be outdoors).

When we first wake up and right before bed seem to be the best times for reading and creating in our household. I recently restocked Emmy's paint supplies and set up her art table with an "invitation to paint." When she woke up the next morning and saw her table, she was so surprised and very motivated to get back to painting.

Emmy's art table and her painting of a sailboat at sunset 

inspired by the view outside of our living room window.  

We've also been motivated to keep reading thanks to our local bookstore and library.  Both have fun summer reading programs going on right now.  At The Book Rack, children are given a passport to Find Waldo in Newburyport.  Local businesses have a small cutout of Waldo hidden somewhere in their store and it's up to the child to find him. Emmy is much better at this seek and find game than I am. She gets so excited when she can ask the shopkeeper to sign her passport.  We have two more Waldos to find and then we can enter our name into the grand prize drawing (a set of Where's Waldo books).

The library's Fizz, Boom, Read program has Emmy reading books for prizes like a coupon to her favorite frozen yogurt shop - Orange Leaf, a free book (she choose Gingerbread Friends by one of her favorite authors Jan Brett) and a free Topsfield Fair ticket!  Emmy fractured her wrist six weeks ago so I've been helping her to fill in her reading log with the titles of the books.

Here are a few books that we've been reading to celebrate the season of SUMMER! (books are listed from a more difficult reading/listening level to an easier one)

Time of Wonder, written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey, won the Caldecott Medal in 1958 for the gorgeous illustrations which depict the Maine landscape in summer.  This is McCloskey's second Caldecott award the first being for Make Way For Ducklings. Time of Wonder revolves around two sisters who spend the summer with their family at the seashore.


When the Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant illustrations by Steven Gammel  You can just feel the family love as soon as you open this book about distant relatives coming to stay for the summer. Many people will relate to the connection one has with relatives that you only see once or twice a year ~ you make the visit worthwhile filling each other up to last until the next gathering.

Summersaults and A Summer Day by Douglas Florian...the first is a collection of poems that shares the joys of summer and the not so joyful things - annoying flies! The second is the story of a family that leaves the sweltering heat of a summer day in the city to spend time exploring in the country.  Emmy and I love it when a book shows a family that lives in an apartment since that is home to us.

Summer Days and Nights by Wong Herbert Yee  I love the nostalgic feel of this sweet story. Emmy loves that the main character is the same little girl from one of our favorite winter books Tracks in the Snow (check out our post here).  Yee creates a summer day that is full of wonder and magic from sun up to sun down.  

I See Summer by Charles Gigna, better known as Father Goose, thrills us with his lyrical rhymes. This book is one of four in a series of books about the seasons. Emmy's favorite part is when the children are chasing fireflies in the dark. Such fascinating little creatures.

Summer by Gerda Muller - This book is one of four in a series of wordless picture books about the seasons.  We have enjoyed this set of books since Emmy was a baby first talking about what we saw as we slowly turned the pages to telling a different story each time we opened the book using the beautiful detailed pictures.  Now we use the books to inspire creative writing about the seasons.  Here's an example of a recent poem inspired by the book...

Summer 

by Emmy

hot and sweaty, sunny and rainy, 

biking and swimming, chilly and juicy

splashing and diving
SUMMER!

We wish everyone a summer full of fun adventures and relaxing days!

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, written by Julia Rawlinson and illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke, is a favorite Autumn book in our house.  In the story a tiny fox named Fletcher is extremely concerned about the leaves changing colors and falling off of his favorite tree.  So concerned, in fact, that he tries desperately to keep the leaves on the tree even though his mother keeps telling him "Don't worry.  It's only Autumn."  In order to keep the leaves on his favorite tree, Fletcher tries catching them, tying them to the tree and even holding on tight to the very last leaf, but nature wins and the last leaf dries up and pops off of the tree.  Fletcher mournfully carries this leaf home and takes it to bed with him.  The next morning the tree has a surprise waiting for him...it has been covered with sparkling ice.  Fletcher is amazed and relieved!  Emmy and I love the ending of this story as Fletcher begins to understand that seasons come and go and with each comes such beauty.

When Emmy was three and a half, she experienced her first New England Autumn.  She loved watching the tree outside of her bedroom window change from bright green to a vibrant red.  Emmy liked to say that the tree was all dressed up and ready to go to the Ball. When she asked me how the leaves changed color, I could have told her the science behind the transformation, but instead told her that the fairies came during the night and painted the leaves all of these beautiful colors.  Her response was why didn't the fairies use pink paint!  Just like Fletcher, Emmy became sad when the leaves started to fall off of the tree.  She, too, thought of ideas to keep the leaves on the tree including tape and glue.

This year's Autumn performance was once again absolutely gorgeous.  Everything burst with its last beauty as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.  Now most of the leaves have fallen off of the trees and we have begun to see a very different landscape.  There are many things we have noticed in our urban neighborhood since the leaves have fallen such as, the bright blue dome of the Greek Orthodox Church two streets away and the calm, emptiness of the Merrimack River as the boats have been brought onto land.

Emmy and I welcome each season with such enthusiasm.  Most of the people around us are already complaining about the cold and the snow that will fall very soon.  There are no complaints from us. We are eager to wear our puffy coats and warm boots, drink hot cocoa under cozy blankets and see the snowflakes settle on the bare branches of the trees.

We hope all of you are enjoying Autumn wherever you may live.

"Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.

Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.

Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.

Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance." 

--Yoko Ono

For a few more Autumn books check out our post about Apple Farmer Annie written in September 2009, our Favorite Autumn Books written in October 2009,   and our post about author Zoe Hall written in October 2010.

Thanksgiving Books

In addition to One is a Feast For Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale, Emmy's pick for her favorite Thanksgiving book would have to be A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting illustrated by Diane de Groat. In this story, Mrs. Moose asks Mr. Moose to get her a turkey for Thanksgiving.

"Everyone has turkey for Thanksgiving.

Everyone but us."

With a nuzzle to Mrs. Moose's head, Mr. Moose heads out to find a turkey. He is joined in the hunt by his soon-to-be dinner guests Rabbit, The Goats, Sheep and Porcupine. Turkey is found hiding in his nest with signs discouraging visitors.

Do not disturb! (come back after Thanksgiving.)

AND

No turkey here!

Upon seeing Mr. Moose and his friends, the bird is terrified and tries to run, but is caught by Mr. Moose who smiles a toothy smile and says,

"I hope you don't have other plans

for Thanksgiving, Turkey."

Mrs. Moose is delighted when she sees her guests for Thanksgiving dinner especially Turkey. Mrs. Moose shows everyone where to sit and when a chair is brought from the other room for Turkey he is very much surprised,

"A...a chair?" Turkey stammered.

With a table filled with acorns, alfalfa sprouts, willow bark, cured grasses, wild parsley and pressed leaves, Mrs. Moose is sure that Turkey will find something to his liking. Turkey is just over the moon at the idea that he is sitting AT the table and not ON it. Kudos to Eve Bunting for introducing us to a vegetarian-themed Thanksgiving dinner!!!!

Two more wonderful books for this time of year are Feeling Thankful and In November.

The book Feeling Thankful, written by Shelley Rotner and

Sheila Kelly with photographs by Shelley Rotner, is an invitation to smile and be thankful as it celebrates life and the many things in the world for which people have to be thankful through beautiful photographs of children. This book will inspire your young one to express what he or she is thankful for. It is also a great model of a book that an older child could make on his own or that families could make together.

Feeling Thankful

I'm thankful for me.

For the things that I have and the things that I do.

I'm thankful for all the

people that are special to me:

My family...my friends...and my teachers too.

I'm thankful I have a home and good food to eat.

I'm thankful for the places where I play.

I'm thankful there are birds, butterflies, flowers, and trees.

I'm thankful when I walk in the rain.

I'm thankful for the moon and the morning, when it comes.

I'm thankful for the whole wide world.

In November by Cynthia Rylant illustrated by Jill Kastner is a beautiful book for this time of year. It is a quiet story about nature preparing for winter. The poetic words and rich paintings work well together to create a calm and peaceful transition between seasons.

In November, at winter's gate, the stars are brittle.

The sun is a sometime friend. And the

world has tucked her children in,

with a kiss on their heads, till spring.

And now for the good part!!!!!!!!! A turkey treat!

To make your own, you will need:

one package of cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreo cookies)

one package of red cinnamon candies

one box of malted milk balls

one package of candy corn

one container of ready-to-spread chocolate frosting

1) Carefully separate the cookie leaving the cream filling on one side. Set cookie half without filling aside.

2) Attach a red cinnamon candy (head) to the malted milk ball (body) with a dab of frosting.

3) Attach the turkey body to the center of the cookie half with cream filling using a dab of chocolate frosting.

4) Spread frosting on the inside of the cookie half that doesn't have filling.

5) Arrange the candy corn on the chocolate frosting with the wide end along the edge (turkey's feathers).

6) Attach the cookie with the turkey's feathers to the cookie with the turkey body using the chocolate frosting.

7) Gobble it up!

Hello Mr. Turkey

(Tune: If You're Happy and You Know It)

Hello, Mr. Turkey - How are you?

Hello, Mr. Turkey - How are you?

With a gobble, gobble, gobble.

And a wobble, wobble, wobble.

Hello, Mr. Turkey - How are you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Time to Keep

A Time to Keep is a delightful book of holidays that begins when a little girl asks, "Granny, what was it like when Mummy was me?" Tasha Tudor gives us a year's worth of wonderful holiday traditions from her life in New England. Quotations from literature charmingly open each month along with beautiful borders that surround each page's nostalgic illustrations depicting family celebrations. Beginning with brown and frozen grasses and flowers decorated with icicles, the borders show the changes of season as each month progresses. The flowers bud and send out catkins, then blossoms, then flowers and leaves, then fruits, all in splendid realistic detail. With the delicious foods, the antics of the children, the activities and games, the decorations, the weather, the homespun plays and puppet shows, and the joyful seasonal work, Tasha Tudor warmly invites us to engage in the fun as she rekindles our own memories of childhood. What fun it is to see big families caught up in living through the wonders of the wheel of the year. Equally important to the holidays are the birthdays, the county fairs, cider and maple syrup making time. Tasha Tudor's own experience of the people and animals of her childhood grace the lovely pages and offer us a glimpse into lives that are filled with love and wonder and appreciation for the beautiful and gentle nuances of living the good life. Simplicity and tradition make the holidays magical and ask us to re-examine how we celebrate our traditional holidays. Materialism is replaced by creativity and family participation. The focus is on love, comfort, and gratitude rather than excessive "partying." This book is truly a treat and is guaranteed to help put whatever holidays you celebrate into thoughtful perspective.

I become completely swept over by nostalgia and longing every time I look at this spectacular book. I find myself yearning for the life depicted in Tudor's scenes. Even though Emmy is a bit young to fully appreciate this book, I will continue to reach for it on the first of every month and share with her the wonder and secrets that each month holds.

To learn more about the life of Tasha Tudor, please visit her family's website:
http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/index.html

It's Spring

Having grown up in the Midwest, the seasons hold special memories for me. I will never forget the look and feel of the first snow of winter or the beauty of the leaves in autumn. In Central Texas, the seasons are much more subtle. I try very hard to make Emmy aware of what is happening in nature on a daily basis. Now that spring is upon us, we are noticing that the trees that were bare in winter are blooming! This causes much excitement on our nature walks. The best part of spring in our area are the wildflowers that slowly take over the hillsides - absolutely gorgeous!

With the spirit of spring running through our veins, I introduced Emmy to the book It's Spring by Samantha Berger and Pamela Chanko. To quote the back of the book, "The robin tells the rabbit, the rabbit tells the deer, the deer tells the bunny, and before long, everyone knows...It's Spring!" This story was originally published in 2000 as a paperback and is now a charming board book. The whimsical animals help create the stir of excitement of all the newness that the season of spring brings with it. The rhyming text is great for very young children and since it is so easy to chime right in, perfect for those children who are beginning to read.

Another wonderful read for springtime is the clevery written board book Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan. Onomatopoeia abounds in this story featuring chicks, bumblebees and kittens as they go about their adventurous day. "Pitter, patter. Pit. Pit. Patter. Splitter, splatter. Wet. Wet. Wetter. CRASH! BANG! WALLOP!" is an example of MacLennan's use of sound words that just need to be read, sung and shouted all at the same time.

What I love best about my newly turned three year old is her absolute joy in the sounds that words make. I hear Emmy making use of words she has heard and creating her own rhymes to sing along to. One of Emmy's favorite songs is Kookaburra. She has been humming and singing this song so often lately, I thought I would share it with you.

Oh, and in case you are wondering:
*a kookaburra is an Australian bird
*a "gum tree" is what is also known as a eucalyptus
*the "gum drops" that the kookaburra eats in the song are beads of the resinous sap

Kookaburra (written in 1936 by Marion Sinclair)

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Eating all the gum drops he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
Leave some there for me

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!
That's not a monkey that's me

Check out KIDdiddles for the tune!
http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/k003.html

One Tree

Emmy and I LOVE to hang out at the bookstore. She gets the biggest smile on her face as she leads me to her favorite section of the bookstore, which just happens to be my favorite, the children's section. On our last trip we came across a new series of books by Innovative Kids called Green Start. They can be found in the board book section, but are by no means just for babies or toddlers! The books are printed on recycled materials and use soy-based inks so they're "good for your child and good for the world". Each book includes a parent page with information and tips related to the story.

One of Emmy's favorite activities is to go for a walk and collect treasures from nature. So when we read One Tree we both knew that this was the book to bring home! It is a story of a tree growing in a meadow and as the seasons change, the tree's life cycle is shown as well as the tree's importance to the insect and animal world. The illustrations are adorable and look as if they are quilted onto a brown paper bag. After reading this book, Emmy took great care in hugging many of the trees we saw on our next nature walk.

The most interesting thing about Emmy as a reader right now is the attention she pays to the illustrations. She always finds something that my eyes have completely skipped over. In the book One Tree she is very curious about what the animals are doing on each page. Emmy's favorite page is about the woodpecker who pecks at the tree's bark to find insects to eat. She noticed and very carefully counted each squirrel and bird who were also in the tree. She is thrilled that animals live in trees and would like to do so herself!