The Story Bus

Riding Along The Story Bus

(A brief description of our story-sharing time.)

      When the weather is cold and rainy, we share stories inside, sometimes in Building Three and sometimes in Building Two.  And what about when the weather is super beautiful?  We don't want to go in, so we share stories outside.  Here we are, with the Morah reading a book while sitting in the "bus."

     This particular day, we read three books, The Pecan Tree, If You Give a Pig a Pancake and She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain When She Comes (Hee Haw!)  It was a bright and sunny afternoon, and we were more than ready to spend some extra time outside enjoying the weather.

     The Morah had picked The Pecan Tree to read first because it was a favorite of her children's, and because we have a huge pecan tree on our IJP playground.  Over the past few months, the Extended Day yeledim have collected piles of the pecans in pots, pans and buckets.  The children stomp on them to open the shells, and they eat some of the nuts.  If a shell is particularly difficult to open, the children ask the Morahs for some assistance.  They line the nuts up on the ramp, count them, and roll them down the ramp.

     The Morah's copy of The Pecan Tree is very, very old and the cover is missing--but a good book is a good book, and we really focused  on the story.  We were eager to guess, how will this story end?  Will the tree get chopped down?  If so, who could chop such a huge tree?  What would happen to the pecans?  The book is old, and yet the story-line and the illustrations are very up-to-date, and the characters are very diverse:  male, female, old, young, black, white.

     After listening to the story, we had a short discussion.
     Orli asked, "Can it be true?"
     Syvlia asked, "Can I look through the book?"  She handled the book very respectfully.
     Amiel asked, "Where is our pecan tree?"
     Sylvia pointed, "It's over there!"
     Then the Morah and Amiel walked over to take note of all the pecans that had fallen to the ground.

   

                         
                          Sylvia reads through one of the Morah's books while perching on the bus.

     So, what surprised the Morah?  This book was written by Matt Robinson, not a familiar name.  But guess what . . . after a brief Google search, the Morah discovered that Matt Robinson is not only a children's author, he also played Gordon on Sesame Street for years--who knew?  Every story has a back story!  We can't wait for more story sharing, whether we are inside or outside!

Pecans, as big as rocks, were falling from the sky!

(Scene from The Pecan Tree by Matt Robinson, illustrated by Robert Velde, 1971)

Want some more info about this book? Go to:   http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidloves.com/2010/10/pecan-tree.html 

Happy Reading!

The Extended Day Morahs and Yeledim 

Noticing Fall in Extended Day

Fall Is Here!

     On a beautiful fall day, the Extended Day yeledim took a walk to experience signs of the season.  We collected colorful leaves, some acorns, pecans and twigs.  We found enough to fill two paper bags!

Eli notices the colorful leaves. 

Liana picks some pine needles left at the curb.

     We noticed that some leaves are red, yellow, brown or green.  We found some pine branches, too--evergreens!  We found leaves from a maple tree, some from an elm and others from an oak tree.  We spotted two palm trees, too!

Above:  Riva and Dovid searching for colorful leaves, acorns and more.

Leora shows the Morahs her acorns. 

     Above:  And Sylvia shows us her pecan cluster.  We have a lot of these by our ship on the upper playground!

     We continued on our way, collecting leaves and nuts--we found so much! (Below:  noticing our environment and picking up a collection of leaves, acorns, etc.)

     Above:  Maya and Gaia make a plan while Alex and Leo look on. 

     Later in the week, we used our fall samples for some art work.  We used the colors of fall--orange, red, yellow, green--to trace and make impressions of our leaves and twigs.

Yonah uses his chalk to make a twig shape. 

Margot makes a leaf outline.

Liana and Maya work side-by-side.  Liana picked the biggest leaf ever!

Leora works with a twig.

Orli gets ready to take some pics.

Orli takes a photo of Levi at work.  We noticed that the children have impressive photography skills!

 
    
     Our day was almost finished.  All of a sudden, a lizard appeared!  We think it's the same lizard that lives under the "stage" and makes its appearance every now and then.  We were gentle!  Amiel placed a twig near the lizard and it climbed on.   A Morah then put the lizard in a garden bed outside the gate, away from the playground.  Within a few minutes, it was back--it had climbed on the fence and was looking at us!  (Pictured: Amiel, Hudson, Dovid and Adom looking at the lizard.  That lizard is hard to spot--in the second photo, we circled the lizard in black marker to make it easier to find.  We were amazed!)

The Extended Day Morahs--Enjoying the Fall with the Extended Day Yeledim