After our forest exploration time, we went under a tree to play a name game, a movement game, and a collaborative story game called, "When Suddenly." When playing "When Suddenly," the children sit in a circle and the first player starts telling a story. When they feel their turn in finished, they signal the next player to begin by saying, "when suddenly...." Below find a transcription of our story:
One day, Sycamore the dog, who was a long, long dog with short little legs, was walking down the street looking for new friends to play with because she missed all her friends in Alabama now that she was in Arizona, and she came across a little black ant who was trying to get over a mound of dirt, and she said, "Hi there ant, my name's Sycamore!" and the ant said, "Leave me alone!" when suddenly...
A big black rat came and ate the ant, when suddenly...
The dog ate the rat, and then she got a stomachache, when suddenly...
Sycamore started to grow. Her belly started to expand to the size of a balloon, and she started floating into the sky, but she wouldn't pop! She couldn't pop! When suddenly...
She goes up over the clouds, and she sees all the stars and the moon and the whole solar system, when suddenly...
She landed on Mercury and found rocks, when suddenly...
More big rocks came, and they hurt Sycamore. Then somebody came to rescue her. A space dog (!), when suddenly...
The space dog, who had huge green antennaes coming out of the top of his head said, "Sycamore, I think I'm in love with you. You're such a beautiful dog! Let's get married," when suddenly...
A great big space monster came up and ate the space dog, when suddenly...
Sycamore decided to fly back to earth, and she landed in New York City, when suddenly...
A new person adopted her in New York City. It was a kid. When suddenly...
Space Dog came out of the monster and came to New York too, and a grown-up adopt it, and then they were all grown up, and they were just walking with the person, and they were barking, when suddenly...
They were on the walk barking, barking, barking, and the person they were barking out turned out to be the judge at the courthouse, and they decided to get married after all! Even after all this tragedy: being eaten by a space monster, and falling back to New York City...so now the two dogs were finally getting married, and then they went to the Statue of Liberty, when suddenly....
They were on the ship, and a big cloud of thunder and rain came and washed the ship all the way back to New York City. THE END.
By the time we finished this activity, it was already time for snack, so we found a shady spot near the Endale Arch (a tunnel in the park). We snacked and talked and laughed and waited for our visiting poet, Christopher O. McCarter, to find us. We were all curious about what he would read and share! Once he met up with us, we all asked him questions about his life and being a poet such as, "what is a poet," "what is poetry," "how did you become a poet," "do you miss Alabama," "do you have magical hair," "do you like buildings," and "have you ever climbed a tree?"
Christopher gamely answered all of our questions and then read us a poem chock-full of colors! The kiddos especially liked his line, "ash twill thunderhead," and they all took turns shouting out the different colors they heard in the poem. Before he read his poem, Christopher asked us to help him think of some titles since he hadn't thought of one yet. The kids suggested "I Have Flowers on My Shirt," "Very Itchy," "A Tree is Breaking," "I Have a New Shirt," and "My Tooth is Aching." They decided to vote on the title to be fair, and "My Tooth is Aching" won by a landslide!
The children were intrigued by Christopher's outfit: a colorful caftan depicting animals and people, so we decided to write a collaborative poem about it and include a color in every line. You can read a transcription below:A red and blue fish swims in golden waves.
A viking golden and red ship came next to it.
A golden castle popped out of the ship and turned into a dragon.
The people hopped onto the blue dragon.
When suddenly an elephant ate up the dragon and it was blue.
The person was too hot so they went to a different place.
They went to Brooklyn. It was brown.
People on the white elephant.
The children all wanted to write their own color poems, so Christopher helped us get started by reading a few poems written by children that include a color in each line. We brainstormed different colorful objects, and the kids jumped right into illustrating and writing! Below are photos of your children at work, followed by photos of their art and poetry:
We said thank you to Christopher O. McCarter for being a super duper fantastic guest and ran across the field to find a new shady tree for lunch time. After lunch, Romy and Sally's plan was to take the kiddos to the nearby 3rd Street Playground sprinklers, but since the children were engaged in the environment and narrative, we decided to continue to play in the shaded forest-like area. They loved the logs and hills and invented tales about pirates and hotels. Again, the act of free-play helped everyone become even better friends! Here are photos of the children at play:
We finished the day by making Sun Art images! We used our morning findings: leaves, pine cones, sticks, plastic bottle caps, and insects to make arrangements on the Sun Art paper. We then watched as the sunlight printed our designs on the paper turning the paper from dark to light blue. We hope you enjoy these Elm Tree mementos as much as your children loved making them.
Thank you for another grand day at Elm Tree Poetry. We will see you all in the morning for a fun-filled day including a visit to the Botanical Gardens.
<3 Sally & Romy
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