Category Archives: extra, extra!

these episodes are crazy random wordplay anyolway!

Book Recommend & Dragon Play with kid super reader Debra

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Join me and my kid co-host Debra as we sail in a sieve to the land of dragons! Debra is a super fan of Tui Sutherland’s book series, “Wings of Fire” and she’s here to tell you why she loves these books so much and to share some fun ways to play with dragons!

Here is Debra’s Dragon Play – Listen to the episode for how Debra came up with her own dragons and she has suggestions for writing their story!

Melonea
All Wings

If you fall in love with this series, there are 14 books out now, but there are three more to be published!

Wings of Fire Book Series: https://kids.scholastic.com/kid/books/wings-of-fire/

Thanks to Debra for sharing one of her favorite book series and to Donna for encouraging reading in your home!

Outer Space Music and Noise with Mary Farfisa’s Outer Space Radio Theater creator Jim Cheff

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Briscoe, Mary Farfisa’s space horse friend, has come to visit me because apparently I have some sounds from Mary’s Outer Space Library that are overdue! In this episode you’ll get to meet the creator of Mary Farfisa’s Outer Space Radio Theater, Jim Cheff and you’ll also get to hear all sorts of music and noise from his show…and as always, we have a couple of Buttons & Figs kids who will show you ways to wordplay!

Links to Jim Cheff’s comics and show:

Mary Farfisa’s Music Album


Coloring Books and more – https://www.facebook.com/maryfarfisa
Mary Farfisa Comics – https://tapas.io/jimcheff
Crater Community Radio – https://craterradio.com/about-mary-farfisa/
Kids Listen – https://app.kidslisten.org/

Silly Animal Verse inspired by Ogden Nash

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Do you love animals at the zoo…us too! For this episode we were inspired by Ogden Nash‘s “Zoo“, a collection of silly animal verse, illustrated by Etienne Delessert. We invited kids at the Velma Teague Library to read some of Ogden Nash’s poems and write some of their own. You’ll learn a bit about Ogden Nash, hear a few of his poems, and hear original poems about a panda, a bee, a sheep and more! We’ll also tell you how we went about our wordplay, so you can play our way by writing some silly animal verse of your own!

Buttons & Figs kids we met at the Velma Teague Library (2020)

Thanks to:
Greg Kinder and Janet Llyod with Glendale Public Library, Velma Teague Branch – who welcomed us in to read, write and play before Covid took it all away!
Zapslat for their SFX
Anna Ferguson our Library Intern from the UofA – who has some wonderful book recommends!

Writing Nonsense – A Word Ghost in the Portal

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Have you ever wondered what would happen if a Word Ghost were to capture me and a bunch of Buttons & Figs kids after we fell through a portal along with a bunch of other friends, like horses, chickens and Scooby-Doo? Us too! In this episode you get to hear a tale from the land of Wacky Woo, Woo, Woo, spun from the imaginations of the first ever group of online writers for Buttons & Figs. During our online class we played with alliteration, rhyming verse, word rhythms then for our last class, we each wrote a chapter that I’ve woven into a story…sort of.

This episode features original nonsense stories written by: C.J., Cruz, Maddy, Noah, Olivia, Piper, and Silver – kids ages 7 to 11.

If you want to write some nonsense too…be sure to check out our friends at Storyseedspodcast.com. They have an excellent podcast for kids all about writing and they have a new activity book chalk filled with great ideas to get you started.

The class was supported and co-taught by Tamara Fromm, sfx by Zapsplat, audio enginnering by Blaise Collins and hosted and produced by Pamela Rogers.

Thanks for listening to me and you and you and me.

extra! extra! Super Hero Jokes for National Comic Book Day

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extra! extra! It’s National Comic Book Day and to celebrate we have SUPER HERO KIDS telling SUPER HERO JOKES! Kids selected a joke from the “DC Super Friends Joke Book” to share with you! We recorded these jokes at the Velma Teague branch of Glendale Public Library during their LibConWest Festival. A Free Festival dedicated to celebrating comics and pop culture! Mark your calendar for this year’s virtual event…Sat Dec 5, 2020! Visit www.libconwest.org or glendaleazlibrary.com to learn more! Wakanda forever, comic books always!

Buttons & Figs · extra! Super Hero Jokes for National Comic Book Day

Woke Poetry

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Before Buttons & Figs heads back into the school year with more wacky wordplay…we have an extra! episode about social justice. On this episode you’ll hear three amazing poems read by Mahogany Browne from the new poetry picture book titled, “Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice.” You’ll also get to hear from some Buttons & Figs kids sharing their thoughts about justice. We hope hearing these poems and conversations will prompt you to talk about social justice with your family.

The poems in “Woke” also feature poets Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood, with a forward by Jason Reynolds. This picture book is filled with hope and joy and the poems will help grownups open up conversations with kids about justice. The book is illustrated by Theodore Taylor III and published by Roaring Brook Press.

We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled wacky wordplay next time. Till then, may your head turn green and your hands turn blue. Thanks for listening to me and you and you and me.

audio sound by Blaise Collins
sound FX from Zapsplat
produced by Buttons & Figs

Buttons & Figs · extra! – Woke – poems about justice with poet Mahogany Browne