Digging in the Garden at Avondale's Tot Time

Monday's Tot Time at the Avondale Library was all about gardening. I created a felt board to tell the feature story, Tops and Bottoms, by Janet Stephens. In this folk tale, Rabbit offers to plant a field for Bear, and gives him the choice of 'tops' or 'bottoms' from the harvest. When Bear chooses tops, Rabbit plants carrots, radishes, and turnips. When Bear chooses bottoms, Rabbit plants lettuce, broccoli, and celery. Bear cries, "NO FAIR! This time I want tops and bottoms!" So Rabbit plants corn. Bear learns a lesson about work and self reliance, and Rabbit buys a farm with the proceeds from selling his vegetables. 

The paper mounds on the felt board were made from grocery sacks. The felt vegetables were hidden in the paper mounds and 'grew' to be harvested by Rabbit. As the vegetables were harvested, the tops were "un-velcroed" from the bottoms. This visual helped the younger children follow the story. I designed our craft of creating a storyboard for retelling the story to help develop the sequencing and narrative skills of our participants. 

Thanks to Western Supermarket on Highland Avenue for donating the grocery sacks for our craft! Tot Time at Avondale Regional Library is held on Monday mornings at 10:30, and is designed for children ages 2-4. Call 226-4003 to register.

Submitted by Eve Parker
Avondale Library