Write2Ignite

Remember five-year-old Mills’ words about The Hello Goodbye Window?

“That book. It just changed me.”

My last post featured books that impacted my kindergartners and prompted insightful experiences.

Books also changed our world outside the classroom. The fenced area beyond our back door was originally designated a playground. Thankfully, children, parents, and school personnel advocated for a “Storybook Garden” instead.

Why A Storybook Garden?

What could be better than a children’s place featuring kids’ favorite books? Some of our purposes were to:

• Encourage children to grow as botanists, entomologists, naturalists, mathematicians, inquirers, readers, writers, and friends.
• Extend our love of literature. We wanted to celebrate our past literary loves while encouraging a quest for new books to highlight. We knew sharing our favorite books there would give other people ideas for books to read.
• Promote involvement of new students and teachers by providing a place of inspiration, knowledge, and beauty and inviting them to volunteer with us.
• Instill a sense of the value and wonder of life as well as a desire to nurture it.

A partnership with parents, children, and Eagle Scout candidates, our Storybook Garden was like no other garden. The space featured knockout roses, “snowball trees” (viburnum), and Confederate Jessamine vines. All of that amid azaleas, verbena, and magnolias.

Following are some books that influenced our garden appearance and changed our world:

The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Janet Stevens

Some children already knew this favorite first-day-of-school book. Others quickly picked up the rhythm. The first foundational area built into our garden was the “Three Billy Goats Gruff Bridge.” For extra fun, we placed an alligator sculpture at the base to represent our troll. Big daddies and baby goats tripped over the bridge as trolls below chanted, “Who’s that tripping over my bridge?” What kindergartner wouldn’t zip by that creature, tramp-tramp-tramping and squealing their lines?

Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey

McCloskey’s beautifully-illustrated classic of a mother duck relocating her baby ducks to the Boston Public Garden reminded students’ parents and grandparents of their childhood. The purchase of a stepping stone mold kit paved the way for a myriad of art projects. We pressed name stones for Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, Quack, and Mother Duck into rectangular molds. Becky Watkins, our art teacher, spent time coaching us on creating clay ducks. This place also became a perfect area to practice alphabetical order as children stamped and ordered stones with their matching ducklings.

Insects Are My Life, Megan McDonald

During our inquiry into insects, we devoured this book on a young girl’s love for bugs—despite the shrieks of her classmates. When we flipped stones in our garden, we delighted in discovering insects, too. Our young scientists used bamboo skewers topped with images of ladybugs, ants, and praying mantises to mark the insects’ locations. We observed and sketched. Then we enlarged the sketches, cut these “patterns” out of clay, fired, and painted them.

The Grouchy Ladybug, Eric Carle

A ladybug house anchored this space, featuring one of Eric Carle’s books about a grumpy bug who thinks she’s bigger than anyone. We hid the ladybug house in our Confederate Jessamine vine. My teaching assistant helped children from the adjoining class form and paint ladybugs before adhering them to magic marker lids atop dowels. With plenty of plants (and aphids!), our ladybugs thrived.

Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White

Who could forget the impact of Charlotte the spider on her naïve friend, Wilbur? This magical tale of friendship taught us life lessons and powerful vocabulary. The children couldn’t wait to design word stones. After finding a cute pig sculpture and a spiderweb frame, children stamped words that Charlotte drafted into her webs: terrific, radiant, and humble. Then kindergartners’ families brainstormed to find adjectives describing them—like huggable, fixer, and advencherus. (Don’t you just love to see children’s spelling patterns valued and appreciated?) Our personality stepping stones graced borders throughout the garden. 

The Little House, Virginia Lee Burton

Standing in the country, the little house watched the city creep her way. Burton’s book shows positives and negatives of progress. To celebrate this story, the children expanded the little house’s world with a concrete road, stores, and churches. From their architecture study, they recalled columns, dormers, and façades while negotiating paint colors in their collaborative groups. We hung some of these creations. Others made their way onto this miniature road, created by an Eagle Scout candidate.

Books Inspiring Our Own Yards

Books changed our school and eventually our yards. Everyone wanted to recreate that Storybook Garden spirit in their own spots in the world. Whether you have a school or home garden, books might add beauty to your world, too. Perhaps you could highlight your own favorite books in your yard. Please share any of your literary garden ideas with us.

These days, she feels called to write stories for children. As a retired teacher, she also captures her most powerful teaching moments to share with a new generation of children through helping their parents, grandparents, and teachers. The rest of the time, you can find her road-tripping with her husband, delighting in her garden, or hanging with her adult children and grandson, Tucker. Connect with her on Pinterest, Twitter, or her website, jennifermbarnes.com. Plus, check out the podcast “KidTalk” that was created with her first graders.