Finding fairies, paging pixies, translating troll talk, and sprites with Sprint

Yesterday the preschoolers made combination wireless Pixy Pagers/Troll Translators. These state-of-the-art technological wonders allow mortal users to keep in touch with pixy associates out in the field searching for fairies, and to receive instantaneous voice-activated translations of troll conversations. An easy-to-use toggle button cycles users through all functions at the flick of a digit. Personal units have wrist cords, rechargeable Pixy Dustbunny Energizer batteries, handy volume controls right on the antennas, and patented Touch-button Wanda-Zappo Pixy Wake-up Alarms. These devices are clearly your all-in-one-hand Fairy Blackberries!

I have more of the wonderful Highland Park pixy sculpture photos ready now. If you would like to go see them, click on this map.




The HP Library has wonderful storytimes for wee folks:

Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. for threes and fours
Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. for age six-month to eighteen-month lapsitters
Thurdays at 11:00 a.m. for twos and threes
Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for threes and fours

The Three Baffled Goats Gruff

What in the hey-ho is a Billy Goat Gruff?? As a kid, the troll made a lot of sense, compared to the goats. Who was Billy? Was he as cute as Bill Z. in Mrs. Erickson's first grade class? Bill Z. had a buzz cut, and big, dark brown eyes.

And what's up with "Gruff"?
Gruff is much more worrisome than troll!
The definitions say "course, thick, large, rough, surly, brusque, and forbidding."

When my sons were little they demanded that I say, "Who's that TRIPPY TROMPING on my bridge?" "It's just a little billy goat was the answer." You tell it that way once, and you are stuck for the next seven years! Children crave repetition. They need grown-ups to always read or tell the story the exact same way. We gain the confidence to change the elements only when our safe grown-up has given us the firm foundation of repetition-on-demand.

Last week my little students gave me a new insight on this tale first recorded in 1845 by Peter Christen Asbjornsen. "What's a belly goat?" "Do the goats dance on the bridge?" The image lurks just off-stage in the absurd theater of my over-active mind. That poor troll! I'm sure the belly-dancing goats have rubies in their belly buttons as they play finger cymbals on the bridge!

It's an image to keep in mind during long rainy days with small children. I am closing my eyes really tight, but the belly goats seem to be singing, "You've Got To Have a Gimmick"!

Gnarly troll houses

gnarly adj 1. very good, excellent; COOL. ("That trick on your skateboard was gnarly!") 2. used to describe something that looks painful or dangerous. ("That was a gnarly car wreck.") 3. gross, disgusting. ("Check out that gnarly old homeless dude.")
Online Slang Dictionary

gnarly Original from 70's surfspeak - to describe waves that are violently breaking without the form that would render them more rideable. Can also describe less than ideal females.

"I'm bailing on this session-waves are too gnarly"
"I had to ditch her friend, she was lookin' gnarly"

UrbanDictionary.com

gnarl - "contort, twist," 1814, a back-formation from gnarled, which appears only in Shakespeare ("Measure for Measure," 1603) but was picked up 19c. by romantic poets and brought into currency. It is probably a variant of M.E. knar "knot in wood" (1382), originally "a rock, a stone," of uncertain origin. Gnarly first attested 1829; picked up 1970s as surfer slang to describe a dangerous wave; it had spread in teen slang by 1980s, where it meant both "excellent" and "disgusting."
Online Etymology Dictionary

My favorite dictionary is the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language that my Uncle Milt and Aunt Margie gave me for high school graduation in 1973. Its red binding is really showing the wear, and sometimes it is a bit out-dated, but the thumbnail illustrations are still intriguing, and the page lay-out has enough white space to keep it visually restful. The entries invite browsing, and send me off on see also references to other words for perusing. To a word-lover, it is a ten-minute vacation, the equivalent of a power nap or hot shower.

I have a friend who reads phonebooks, and finds the same intrigue, edification, and relaxation. Other friends browse cookbooks. To each her own reference book.

American Heritage indicates that gnarl can mean to snarl or growl, as well as a protruding knot on a tree. Gnarled can mean misshapen, "crabbed in temperment", or "rugged in appearance".

How are you doing, darling? You seem somewhat crabbed in temperment....

It's so nice of you to ask, honey. I'm having difficulty refraining from browsing gnash, gneiss, and gnu, and thence to wildebeest or schist. I am worried that I might be gnathic, and maybe related to a jaw.

We are making quite delightful troll houses. They resemble tree stumps. I will get some photogs on the Itty Bitty Art Projects blog soon. We did papier mache with Ross Art Paste and covered our houses in crumpled and torn brown paper bags for a tree bark texture. [This is going better than the year we made the rock'n'roll trolls on stage at the Fairyland Bandstand complete with teeny tiny disco balls.]



Papier mache always brings out both the "excellent; cool" and "disgusting" comments. This time the soggy, sagging forms will also fit the contorted, twisted, misshapen connotations of "gnarly".



One of these summers we will finally create chia trolls. The time frame limitations have yet to be surmounted. I want to make clay trolls, dry them, fire them, and still have time to sprout the grass seed hair...It just doesn't work in two weeks.

Going to climb the rope ladder into my treehouse now for some reading time. I will lower a bucket for provisions and bug repellent.

The Super Smart Pig...

....built his house of kryptonite. We are fracturing fairy tales and scrambling stories super. Today the elem kids made Super Smart Pigs, complete with capes and x-ray vision glasses. Did a lot of brainstorming of super abilities for our pigs. This is going better than the year when we made Rock & Roll Trolls at the Fairyland Bandstand, complete with teeny tiny disco balls. Back to the stuffed pigs--no apple in the mouth! Buy pink paper sacks (brown bag lunch style) from Michaels, or an artsy/craftsy/party supply store. Open up the sacks by sneaking your hand in and wiggling your fingers all around to open the sack. These "pigs are very hungry. Can't you hear them oinking?" (Everybody oinks like crazy, and talented folks also grunt and snuffle) The pigs get fed with crumpled up double pages of the Dallas Morning News. Depending on the age of the kids, the teacher may need to do the "feeding" to avoid ripping the sacks. Roll down and scrunch the top of the sack as you would a lunch bag. You could also fold and staple. Glue on ears where the bag is scrunched. The legs could be pink felt, construction paper, or corks. Draw the face with markers, or get fancy gluing googly eyes and button noses. Curl pink pipe cleaners (cut in half) for tails, and poke them into the back. That had to hurt! While the preschoolers were happy just making pigs, we went for a more complex scenario for the elementary kids. When the Super Smart Pigs were done, the kids were "flying" them around and having comic book dialogues. A six-year old boy stopped making those boy shooting sound effects, and announced, "There! I got him! The evil Canadian is no more!" The middle school kids will create Personality Plus Pigs next week to connect with the characterization focus in drama class. I am getting the urge to create my own papier mache personality pig!