Sail in a sieve to the land of Audubon Poetry Play with poet laureate David Chorlton and his bird Maxi. On this episode David shares his poetry and inspires kids to write poetry in order to better understand their relationship with nature. The Buttons & Figs kids use acrostic poetry play to explore how they feel about the nature and birds and if families want to learn more, we share information about the Maricopa Audubon Society and Audubon.org. If you would like to have some acrostic poetry fun, visit ButtonsandFigs.com and download the free activity sheet that goes with this episode. Beware of the kingdom of the claw…Kakawwwww!

Acrostic Poetry Play

More Acrostic Poem Play

On this episode we’re sailing our sieve to the land of Neon Words with some Simile Play! We were inspired by the new book, “Neon Words: 10 Brilliant Ways to Light Up Your Writing.” Our writing play comes from Chapter 1 of this book and we had a chance to interview authors Marge Pellegrino and Kay Sather from Tucson, Arizona, to ask them where they got all of their bright ideas! We hope you’ll play along as we share some of our favorite Neon Words! www.buttonsandfigs.com

Neon Words: 10 Brilliant Ways to Light up Your Writing by Marge Pellegrino and Kay Sather

Marge Pellegino’s Website

Kay Sather’s movie about her mud house – MUD

Lovely book review from Pirate Tree

On this episode we’re sailing our sieve to the land of weird song lyrics with Story Pirates! Story Pirates just released the new wacky song album, “Backstroke Raptor.” The album is filled with wacky songs written by kids, performed by wacky musicians for kids. We get to share two songs from the Story Pirates album and we talk with founder Lee Overtree about what makes a great song lyric. We also have a few wacky song ideas from our own Buttons & Figs kids.
We hope you’ll sing and play along. www.buttonsandfigs.com

On this episode we sail our sieve to the land of POETRY! Rosemarie Dombrowski, poet laureate for Phoenix, celebrated National Poetry Month by writing two special poems for Buttons & Figs! Rosemarie shares her poem “Why I Want to Be a Lizard.” The 3rd graders at Camelview Elementary School play with the poetry prompt “Why I Want to Be….,” creating original wordplay poems of their own. Enjoy the writing and voices of the students in Ms. Cowen’s class and Ms. Stiles class. Poetry everyday, we say! www.buttonsandfigs.com

On this episode we sail our sieve back to the land of POETRY! Rosemarie Dombrowski, poet laureate for Phoenix, celebrated National Poetry Month by writing two special poems for Buttons & Figs! Rosemarie reads her poem “Cat Lady.” The 3rd graders at Camelview Elementary School play with nouns from 5 famous poets, including Rosemarie Dombrowski, Edward Lear, Dennis Lee, Calef Brown and Carl Sandburg,

creating original wordplay sentences & poems of their own. Enjoy the creativity & voices of the students in Ms. Lisa Petrauschke’s class and Ms. Perkins class. Poetry everyday, we say! www.buttonsandfigs.com