The Great and Powerful Oz

This week we had fun with Part 3 of The Wizard of Oz. A lot happens in this section, between the angry apple trees, meeting both the Tin Man and the Lion, and running across poison poppies. Just reading the story took most of our available time. Today the kids made lion "masks" with their peer buddies. We adapted a bit by using smaller paper plates and gluing a photo of the kids' faces to the center. Ours don't seem to look much like lions at the moment as they are made from some very interesting colors (blue and orange, purple and gold, etc.). Maybe once we add some ears... The kids really enjoyed the adapted Boardmaker book (still waiting to hear back from Pete Wells to see if it's OK if I share these adaptations), probably because some of the best music is in this section. I don't know how many times we've heard "If I Only Had a Brain" and "If I Were King of the Forest."

Next week we find out if everyone survives the poison poppies, meet the Great and Powerful Oz, and venture off on a quest after the witch's broom. As part of our activities we will

• Do a green foods taste test and graph our likes and dislikes
• Fingerpaint with different shades of green (if time; it's a four day week for us)
• Do the heart collage we ran out of time for this week
• Do a lesson on the concepts of "real" and "pretend"

Our big Wizard of Oz party is in two weeks. Hopefully we'll be finished with the story by then. There's only one part to go after this next week so I think we'll make it.