English Poetry - The Toadstool Wood by James Reeves

The Toadstool Wood by James Reeves

The toadstool wood is dark and mouldy,

and has a ferny smell.

About the trees hang something quiet

and queer - like a spell.

Beneath the arching sprays of bramble

Small creatures make their holes;

Over the moss's close green velvet

The stilted spider strolls.

The stalks of toadstools pale and slender

That grow form the old log,

Bars they might be to imprison

A prince turned to a frog.

There lives no mumblin witch nor wizard

In this uncanny place,

Yet you might think you saw at twilight

A little, crafty face.

*the study here - was how the poem makes you feel?  Is the wood mysterious or really unpleasant?  

*Senses - words that appeal to the senses have been used such as dark, ferny, mouldy.  Identify the sense and then change the word to make the poem lighter and more pleasant.

About the Poet

James Reeves was born John Morris Reeves in 1909, in the London suburb of Harrow-on-the-Hill.

He was a teacher at various schools and colleges from 1933 to 1952 and became a full-time author and editor in 1952.

His 1st book of poems for children -THE WANDERING MOON, appeared in 1950.   

Altogether he published nearly 30 books of poetry, stories and anthologies for both adults and children. He was also well known as a literary critic and broadcaster prior to his death in 1978.

Source:  www.bookrags.com/James_Reeves , http://www.lauracecil.co.uk/pages/Clients/Clients_Fiction/Reeves/Reeves_home.html, 

You can also read about him here:  http://firstknownwhenlost.blogspot.com/2010/07/neglected-poets-james-reeves.html

Another of his poems is:

THE SEA

The sea is a hungry dog,
Giant and grey.
He rolls on the beach all day.
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws
Hour upon hour he gnaws
The rumbling, tumbling stones,
And 'Bones, bones, bones, bones! '
The giant sea-dog moans,
Licking his greasy paws.

And when the night wind roars
And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud,
He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,
Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,
And howls and hollos long and loud.

But on quiet days in May or June,
When even the grasses on the dune
Play no more their reedy tune,
With his head between his paws
He lies on the sandy shores, 

So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.

Source:  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sea-36/

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Other links:  

Lists of sensory words per sense (hear, see, taste etc.)  - really useful for writing http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/662095-Sensory-Words

Best Kids Poetry Websites  http://www.squidoo.com/k12interactivepoetry

Biology - Seedlings

Our corriander seeds have sprouted now (on our sunny bedroom windowsills).  We had planted them in pots and covered them with plastic and elastic band to hold it still.  My little sisters tomato form the kit just germinated now which is just plain weird as min germinated 2 weeks in the same conditions.  The ones we planted ourselves (Not the special kits) germinated first ha ha ha.  Radishes have germinated.  We transplanted our beans and the snails and slugs got them unfort :(  Naturtiums germinated.  Its fun watching things grow.  We have planted cuttings of willow and we have put a bamboo cutting into water to see if it will grow roots.

Photos to follow

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Here are some good links:

http://theseedsite.co.uk/ - webpages about seeds - collecting seeds, storing seeds, sowing seeds, germinating seeds and exchanging seeds, with pictures of seeds, seedpods and seedlings (and a bit of botany!)

See how they grow

We were given this lovely book as a present from a friend.  Its called "See how they grow:  Pony" and its really nicely set out with super photos.  We have just had 2 new foals of our own born this spring and this book shows exactly how they grow over  a period of time and its set out perfectly for kids.

I would recommend it for any kids interested in ponies.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/see-how-they-grow-pony

Biology: Plants

Here is my presentation on plants:

Plants

If you click on the link abo you can view it directly in scribd.com and you can also chose a full screen view for easy reading.

How to grow your own vegetables

We were visiting another island to have our cats spayed and went to a local shop there.  They have so much more that we have in our little island shop!  We bought these cool educational tomato growing kits called "SUTTONS fun to grow" (have you ever wondered HOW does a tomato grow?).  Each Pot kit contains a peat pot, 'magic' compost black, seed and a fun facts sheet.

My sister and I are now happily growing our own tomatoes. 



It's not like we have not grown our own plants before, its just that these are set up so nicely and have a little educational pamphlet with them and they are really appealing because they are so cute.

Strangely enough the seeds in the little pot took longer to germinate than the extra seeds we put in a bigger pot under our own plastic lid.  They already germinated last  week, within a couple of days and today was the first day my one in the little pot germinated.

My sisters bigger pot germinated earlier and her little pot has not germinated yet.

They were both under the same conditions - each set being on our sunny bedroom windowsills.


Have a look at http://www.suttons-seeds.co.uk/ because thats the the address on the little yellow pot.

My parents have always grown their own vegetables, fruit and herbs because we used to have a small farm in Africa.  We learn as early as crawling and walking and talking the process of seed to seeding to product and then also havesting and storing the seeds we needed for the following year.  We learnt all about compost and earthworms, bees, butterflies, aphids and ladybirds.  We learnt about companion planting and the medicinal poroperties of plants and which plants were poisonous.  We grew up with herbal teas, homemade jams and fresh vegetables straight off the plant.  Our sunflowers used to grow taller than the house and the heads were bigger than dinner plates.  Our horses, bunnies and birds used to eat sunflowerseeds straight off the heads.  We grew our own mielies (Corn) and its delicious strait from the cob).  Its a wonderful way to grow up :D

Here of course the climate is different, so our efforts are not successful. The wind blows too hard even in the summer and we don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel yet.  Our vegetable and herb garden used to be bigger than our whole house and garden here and we used to have over 400 trees in our garden with lots of fruit trees and now we have none but its a good learning experience and we have all our past knowledge to build on.

For the past 3 years now we have germinated our seedlings indoors and then hardened off but had little results due to the huge amount of slugs, snails and of course the wind.

We are tweeking our system gradually so hopefully this year will be better.