Buttons & Figs

Buttons & Figs sailed in a sieve to the Velma Teague Library in Glendale, Arizona for some Spooky Halloween Play. We asked kids to write spooky stories, tell us about their costumes or favorite characters, and share some of their best spooky sounds. Be sure to write your own spooky story this Halloween. For ideas of what to write about, visit www.Buttonsandfigs.com for free downloadable activity sheet. Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!

Sail in our way-back sieve to visit the ghost of Halloween past with a listener favorite from 2017 - What is a Skul-a-Mug-Mug you ask? This episode is inspired by "Black is Bittern" by Robert Heidbreder, a fabulous nonsense book about these creatures! Be sure to download our spooky activity sheet filled with ideas for the season....and stay tuned....we will have more spooky stories heading your way...Bawhahahahaaaaaa!

On this episode Buttons & Figs is proud to feature original ghost stories, for brave kids, (recommend 8+)by Tony and Pike, students at Independence High School in Glendale, Arizona. Tony shares a haunting story of a family ghost and a headless rooster and Pike shares a chilling delicious folk tale of the Windigo. Stories include mention of decapitation and cannibalism, as many a folk tale will do...but rest assured, we have more, happier stories on the way, for the youngest of listeners! Happy, spooky Halloween from all of us at Buttons & Figs, a podcast for kids about playing with words and stories....Bawhahahaha!

Spoooooooooky Halloween Vowel Sounds - Which vowels bring your favorite howls? Eeeeeeeeeeeek! I dare you to come up with Halloween sounds for each vowel! Each Wacky Wordplay Wednesday (WWW)episode will feature a wordplay game you can play - with your family, friends, classmates or on your own. Each Wednesday this fall, join us for a wordplay ball. WWW episodes are brought to you by Buttons & Figs, a podcast for kids about playing with words. Visit www.buttonsandfigs.com to find WWW activities - now go play!

Sail in a sieve to the land of ideas with Ms. Harding's class of 2nd graders at Madison Simis Elementary School in Phoenix, Az. These kids were inspired by the book, "What Do You Do With An Idea?" by Kobi Yamata, illustrated by Mae Besom. The last page of the book says ideas can change the world, so these kids set out to think about ideas to make oceans, lands, schools, playgrounds, and zoos better...they even have ideas for how to make cobras better! What ideas do you have to change the world? --www.buttonsandfigs.com

We're going to play with Dialogue! - Who's a hog? - No, Dialogue. - There's no smog! - No Dialogue! - What's that? - We have some questions to get you playing with dialogue! Each Wacky Wordplay Wednesday (WWW)episode will feature a wordplay game you can play - with your family, friends, classmates or on your own. Each Wednesday this fall, join us for a wordplay ball. WWW episodes are brought to you by Buttons & Figs, a podcast for kids about playing with words. Visit www.buttonsandfigs.com to find WWW activities - now go play!

Have you ever met that flighty Old Person of Phoenix? Our Limerick Tricks will show you the patterns of play for making limericks this way! Each Wacky Wordplay Wednesday (WWW)episode will feature a wordplay game you can play - with your family, friends, classmates or on your own. Each Wednesday this fall, join us for a wordplay ball. WWW episodes are brought to you by Buttons & Figs, a podcast for kids about playing with words. Visit www.buttonsandfigs.com to find WWW activities.

At the Alphabet Circus - A Hurt His Arm as he fell from a flying trapeze! What will happen next? Each Wacky Wordplay Wednesday (WWW)episode will feature a wordplay game you can play - with your family, friends, classmates or on your own. Each Wednesday this fall, join us for a wordplay ball. WWW episodes are brought to you by Buttons & Figs, a podcast for kids about playing with words. Visit www.buttonsandfigs.com to find WWW activities.

Buttons & Figs has set sail for another season of wordplay! We have a fabulously full fall of wordplay fun for everyone! We'll be playing with similes, nonsense poems, nature, ideas and more. We'll be interviewing authors of wordplay and showing you our way to play....so stay tuned. If you're looking for literary listening - try on these for size - The Good Words Podcast, KitLitTV, Book Power for Kids, The Book Club for Kids, and of course....The Story Pirates! In the meantime, enjoy this Reprise of episode #39 featuring the song Backstroke Raptor from the Story Pirates album of the same name. Play, play, play with words. www.buttonsandfigs.com

Summertime is a time for summer, but summer has come to an end. Summer is at The Beach with an exclusive interview with Pamela Rogers and Mark Pena, the creative minds behind this Summertime series. Can Pam and Mark figure out a way to say goodbye to summer? Tune in and find out. Then, go back to school and play, cuz we don't care a button, we don't care a fig. www.buttonsandfigs.com . [sound fx courtesy of Zapsplat and a casio keyboard.]

Summertime is a time for summer. We have an exclusive interview with a pilot of a spacecraft that has just landed on The Beach. Find out about what they do during the summer on their planet. Summer fun, summer play, summer all day cuz we don't care a button, we don't care a fig. Now go play. www.buttonsandfigs.com . [sound fx courtesy of Zapsplat and a casio keyboard.]

Summertime is a time for summer. Listen in as the kids at Camp Summer Camp tell scary stories, including one about an abominable butternut squash...yes, you read that right, a squash, a butternut squash, an abominable butternut squash. Summer fun, summer play, summer all day cuz we don't care a button, we don't care a fig. Now go play. www.buttonsandfigs.com . [sound fx courtesy of Zapsplat and a casio keyboard.]

Summertime is a time for summer. Bigfoot likes a bad joke, in the summertime. Cryptozoology jokes, when regular zoology is just not crypto enough. Summer fun, summer play, summer all day cuz we don't care a button, we don't care a fig. Now go play. www.buttonsandfigs.com . [sound fx courtesy of Zapsplat and a casio keyboard.]

Summertime is a time for summer. Here's some pastiche from the Thesaurus, because it's always good to have healthy options. Malapropisms are fun in the sun, capiche? Summer fun, summer play, summer all day cuz we don't care a button, we don't care a fig. Now go play. www.buttonsandfigs.com . [sound fx courtesy of Zapsplat, Italian music from Italy's open source project www.canzoneitaliana.it]

Summertime is a time for summer. Here's a tasty treat of homonyms, delicious for the whole family whether in a hole during bad weather or at sea. See? You see, sea creatures love homonyms, see? See? Summer fun, summer play, summer all day cuz we don't care a button, we don't care a fig. Now go play. www.buttonsandfigs.com

On this episode we're sailing our sieve to the land of wacky song lyrics with Story Pirates! Story Pirates just released a new wacky song album, "Backstroke Raptor." The album is filled with wacky songs written by kids, performed by wacky musicians for kids. We get to share two songs from the Story Pirates album and talk with founder Lee Overtree about what makes a great song lyric. We also have a few wacky song ideas from our own Buttons & Figs kids. We hope you'll sing and play along. www.buttonsandfigs.com

On this episode we sail our sieve back to the land of POETRY! Rosemarie Dombrowski, poet laureate for Phoenix, celebrated National Poetry Month by writing two special poems for Buttons & Figs! Rosemarie reads her poem "Cat Lady." The 3rd graders at Camelview Elementary School play with nouns from 5 famous poets, creating original wordplay sentences & poems of their own. Enjoy the creativity & voices of the students in Ms. Lisa Petrauschke's class and Ms. Perkins class. Poetry everyday, we say! www.buttonsandfigs.com