This Book Was a Good Idea!

That is Not a Good Idea! Actually, I think it is a very good idea – the book that is – and my early elementary students couldn’t agree more. Mo Willems’ story had them all laughing from the first page when the fox and goose made bug-eyed eye contact.

The fox’s facial expression left no doubt he was enamored with the goose, though his intent toward her was questionable. After showing a group of kindergarten students the illustration on the first page, I asked them what the fox might be thinking. Emanuel thought he was in love and wanted to marry the goose. Brenden said, “ He’s thinking, ‘I want to eat her!’”  Later in the story, when the fox invited the goose into his kitchen, Liam blurted, “He’s going to cook her up!”

Throughout the story, adorable little goslings kept popping in, chirping, “That is not a good idea!” The warnings grew as the story progressed and went from one little egg-shaped gosling to six shouting “That is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY NOT a good idea!” Whenever I turned a page to the warning, my students read the words along with me with great enthusiasm.

The kids loved this book and they especially loved the goslings. Every time they appeared on a page, all the students started chattering at once, pointing to the details – bow tie, glasses, facial expressions, flurry of wings. They were so charmed by the illustrations they wanted to make some of their own. Take a look at the work of these budding artists.

We had a sprinkling of rain the day after I read the book and one of my speech students broke into a run as he neared my room (and broke a school rule in the process.) He slipped on the metal ramp and rushed into my room rubbing his elbow. As he came in he said, “That was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY not a good idea!”  He was right. And I think I’m right when I say it was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY a good idea to introduce Mo Wilems’ latest book to my students.

Mother's Day and The Curious Garden

With Mother’s Day around the corner, our students have been busy painting flowers, crafting cards, and purchasing plants for the important women in their lives.

Art from Marcia Douglas' Kindergarten class

 

Lucky for these kids, we have a well-stocked garden on the school grounds and a teacher, Julie Castillo, who passes along her knowledge and love of plants. This week she introduced the students to “Lady Bug City” where the children went in search of a friendly ladybug or two.

After visiting the garden on Thursday, my students came to speech bubbling with information about their plant purchases so I chose a book to fit the theme: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown.

 

The book begins on a dreary note with a dreary, smoke-filled city.

“There once was a city without gardens or trees or greenery of any kind. Most people spent their time indoors. As you can imagine, it was a very dreary place.”

But a little boy in the story, Liam, loved the outdoors. He went exploring one drizzly day and discovered a “lonely patch of color” on an abandoned railway. The plants were dying and in need of a gardener. It wasn’t long before Liam became that gardener and the dying plants became a garden – a very curious one.

“Most gardens stay in one place. But this was no ordinary garden. With miles of open railway ahead of it, the garden was growing restless. It wanted to explore.

           

The tough little weeds and mosses were the first to move. They popped up farther and farther down the tracks and were closely followed by the more delicate plants.”

My students responded with enthusiasm to the story and they surprised me with gasps of wonder when I turned a page and they saw the transformation that plants made to a dilapidated building, an old wooden dock and a concrete parking lot. Lush greens spilled over rooftops and vibrant colors sprouted across the page. By the end of the story, there were no doubts – a garden can bring beauty even to the drabbest of places. This curious garden brought beauty to drab lives, too, as people of the town came out-of-doors and tended gardens all around the city.

On Friday, one of my autistic students showed me a three-inch manila envelope full of sunflower seeds she’d collected from our school garden. I assumed she was taking them home but after she left my room, I saw her outside the window, bent over my weed-filled barrel. She cleared out a mat of dried chickweed, emptied the envelope, and tucked soil around her gift.

Our Redwood students enjoy learning about plant life, insects, and gardening, but I think they are discovering something more – a variety of ways to bring beauty into our world.