What We're Reading
In thinking about what stories from the yards I wanted to tell you, this time I decided to tell you about the books we are reading. First, you should know that we read all day, anytime a kid wants to, and so often they do. These stories are about the end of day books I have been reading in the Big Yard, because that is a special privilege I have been enjoying. Each day, we clean up for five minutes at a quarter to 12, and then I offer a story, in the shade of the Climbing Tree (see photo link), right before we sing goodbye and wash our hands.
After one child came in talking about a library book about the West African folk hero Anansi, I pulled some mythological stories for them. We read about Anansi, and a Southwest US Indiginous tale called Arrow to the Sun, and then we read my favorite of Gerald McDermott's adaptations, Raven, which is an indiginous story from our Pacific Northwest, and that is the one I read at the end of the day. Kids love trickster tales, and they love to shout out when they understand when the trick is about to be revealed. I am glad for kids to participate in a story, because that means they are fully engaged.
On a different day, I read the same group the folktale, The Gingerbread Boy, which was familiar and which kids love to hear again and again. Once again, as the part draws near where the trickster fox will find a way to eat the mischievous Gingerbread Boy, the children shout out, because they know what's going to happen. They love to feel they can outsmart the fox.
One day, it was thundering and raining, and that had disturbed the sleep of many of our kids, and they had a lot to say about that. Some of them had been scared. So we read Thunder Cake (this version read aloud by the author, Patricia Polacco!). I particularly love how this book has the little girl count the seconds between lightning flash and the roll of thunder, which is both a practical skill to help us know how close the storm is, but also slows us down and creates a sense of calm while you're reading. At the end, there is a real recipe, and a kid who loves to bake with her mom immediately asked to take it home to share with her mom, who is a great baker.
With a different group of kids, the mood was different too, so I chose two classics. Where the Wild Things Are (this version read by me on my embarrassing YouTube channel from the early days of quarantine!) leaves kids with a message about how sometimes a person wants to be a little wild, and sometimes they are ready to come back home and be tame, and that's the way it is. Second I read Red Light, Green Light, a slow-paced, soothing story where the different vehicles and people and animals each go home to their own special houses to sleep. Kids chimed in to tell me about the skinny little crescent moon they could see in the story.
Friday, I read a silly take on the traditional story, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, and a kid told me that they were more familiar with this version of the story than with the regular bears one. I read the book, but next time, I'll go back and tell the traditional tale orally, because oral storytelling is an important part of literacy, too! In the meantime, here's a delightful version by James Marshall to tide you over.
I hope these book stories help you see how the act of reading in our classroom is a responsive practice that is about a conversation, a dance, and not a static, silent, teacher-directed activity. Reading in an emergent curriculum class is about listening to the kids as much as to the books! And maybe these links will help you be able to cook dinner, or discover an author you want to check out next time you're at the library.