Category Archives: wordplay

episodes include figurative wordplay inspired by poems, songs and stories.

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!

Activity Book Nonsense – New Album and Interview with comedy musician Mike Phirman

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Do you like to say the words, Activity Books? Do you like all the puzzles and games found in Activity Books? Then you’ll love comedy musician Mike Phirman‘s new album titled, “Activity Books“. In this episode you’ll get to hear one of the songs from his new EP, “Word Search/Vacuum”, featuring the voice of Weird Al Yankovich; you’ll also get to hear our funny and fabulous interview with Mike about how he became famous and about his unfortunate experience with a vacuum; and, you’ll hear from two Buttons & Figs kids, Olivia and Sophia, who were inspired to make a word search of their own (see below)!

New episode featuring Mike Phirman and a song from his new album

You can learn more about Mike Phirman’s work and find all the ways to purchase the Activity Books EP at his website: mikephirman.com

Be sure to subscribe to Mike Phirman’s YouTube Channel to see these and all of his wacky videos, including the connect-the-dots project he mentioned in the episode!

A few of our Buttons & Figs kids were inspired to create their own word search activity after listening to this fabulous album. Click on the image to print and do the word search!

Olivia’s Wild Word Search
Sophia’s Word Search
Great kids podcast created by Drennon Davis & Mike Phirman

Thanks for this episodes go out to Buttons & Figs kids Olivia, Sophia and friends, Beth Blenz-Clucas at Sugar Mountain PR, UofA Librarian Intern Anna Ferguson and comedy musician Mike Phirman.

Word Search/Vacuum and song excerpts from the Activity Books album used with permission from the artist.

Sound FX from Zapsplat

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.

#52 – The Nonsense Show at Velma Teague Library

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For this episode kids at the Velma Teague Library in Glendale, Arizona wrote and recorded nonsense poems inspired by Eric Carle’s “The Nonsense Show” (public library/indie bookstore). Be warned, this book of nonsense brings forth all sorts of, well, how shall I say, Nonsense! You’ll also hear great nonsense book recommends, and a public service announcement about staying hydrated. What? You say poppycock, fiddle-faddle, surreal cereal?! You’re welcome.

The Nonsense Show by Eric Carle

All nonsense on this episode was written by kids taking part in Buttons & Figs creative wordplay workshops at Velma Teague Library in the Spring of 2020, yup, in the time before. These voices are a nice reminder that we’ll gather again. Stay safe, sane, hydrated, and wear a mask.

Kid’s Nonsense Writing

Poems by Buttons & Figs kids
Music by Pamela Rogers
SFX by Zapsplat

www – Add A Rhyme

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On this episode of Wacky Wordplay Wednesday we’re going to play with RHYMES! Who doesn’t like to have a good time with a mighty good rhyme?!
In this game you’ll be listening to our rhyming verse so you can Add A Rhyme when I say it’s time! Your challenge…ADD A RHYME. (Wacky, quacky, badacky rhymes get extra points, said I) Get ready to play – ADD A RHYME!

written by pamela rogers
audio produced by blaise collins
SFX from Zapsplat