Wizard of Oz

It's so vivid in my memory. First grade, I have my hair in two French braids but "not braided on the ends so it really looks like Dorothy's hair." I'm trying to squeeze into my classmate's shiny black patten leather shoes (that were about two sizes too small on my always too large feet and really didn't look anything like ruby slippers other than that they were shiny, and also look really lovely with my school uniform thick brown knee-high socks, but now I'm rambling.) It was the day my classmates and I had been planning on acting out the Wizard of Oz during recess. Seems like yesterday.

Almost everyone has special memories of the first time they heard the story of the Wizard of Oz, (although those flying monkeys in the movie might not bring back warm fuzzy memories!)

A few months ago my mother in law set out a box of old books for me to go through. The first book I picked out was an old, red book. It was The Adventures of Reddy Fox, which belonged to my father-in-law when he was a boy. I've been reading all Thornton T. Burgess' old animal classics to the girls this year and we had just finished reading about Reddy so it was such a treasure to find.

The next book I picked out was this 1960 copy.
I hadn't really thought about reading it to them yet, (those monkeys still haunted me) but Tess persisted. So in December I started to read a chapter each night at bedtime and the girls fell in love with the story. I had never read the book before and really enjoyed discussing it with the girls (I did take a few editing liberties as I read if I felt something would be too frightening for Gracie.)

Everything then changed to be related to the Wizard of Oz. A little brown stuffed dog is now permanently renamed Toto. Gracie (who FREQUENTLY insists that I call her Dorothy and not Gracie) calls her favorite pink shoes "ruby slippers." Tess flies through the house as one of those pesky flying monkeys. Gracie found a toy lizard one day and exclaimed excitedly, "It's the lizard of Oz!" and has belted out "Watch out so the big tomato doesn't get Dorothy!" And the singing. Oh, the constant singing, of all the songs from the soundtrack.



But I really had a flashback to that first grade memory when the girls informed me that they would be putting on their own play version of the Wizard of Oz. I sat in the living room as they came up with the costumes and props and everything on their own, complete to the music of the movie soundtrack.

Dorothy and the Scarecrow (notice the ruby slippers and Toto in the basket):
Dorothy and the Tin Man:
Dorothy needs lots of coffee to make it all the way to Oz. (Aren't there days like this when ya just feel the need to drink the coffee straight from the pot, apparently Dorothy does!)
When we finished reading the book, I let Tess watch the movie and then we compared and contrasted the book with the movie and completed a simple lapbook about what we learned.

I was also able to find a coloring book based on the original story, and Tess has done a few really cute entries in her journal about the Wizard of Oz.

What fun we had on our little journey to Oz!