Buttons & Figs

WHAT is the Conclusion?! Play the OTHER game show everyone is talking about - ARE YOU SILLY?! Test your logic, tickle your brain, with 3 Silly Syllogisms! 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 spring, join us for this wordplay thing. WWW episodes are brought to you by Buttons & Figs, a podcast for kids about playing with words. Visit www.buttonsandfigs.com to find WWW companion pieces to help you play our way! Now, GO PLAY!

Happy Sorta Not New Anymore Year from us to YOU! This is just a short episode to say, we have more wordplay heading your way! In the meantime, be sure to listen to past episodes, there are all sorts of different ones, with all sorts of different kind of wordplay fun. And, since it's Lewis Carroll's birthday, I have a little song I've been working on called, "Portmanteaus Are Useful!" Stay tuned for more wordplay fun in 2020...too bad it's not 2021 yet, it rhymes better. Now, go play!

Sail with us this holiday to the Velma Teague Library in Glendale Arizona where we share holiday play inspired by the classic Christmas poem, "The Night Before Christmas" by Clement Moore. But of course we don't just read the poem, we play! Listen in as these Buttons & Figs kids come up with their own reindeer names, and using the poem as inspiration, they set sail to write their own original stories. We hope you'll head to the library this holiday and read The Night Before Christmas so sugar plums will dance and sing in your imagination. May poetry and play come your way this holiday. Till we meet again in 2020, happy new year from Buttons & Figs.

Play the game show everyone is talking about - Synonym Spice! Play 4 rounds of Synonym Spice and see if you can pick which word is NOT a synonym. 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.

Sail with Brainstorming Bella and her Fabulous Friends as they steer our sieve to the land of alliteration. Bella, a Buttons & Figs fan, begged and beguiled her classmates at the West End Montessori school in Richmond, Virginia into hosting this episode of alliterative fun. You'll get to hear them define alliteration, play with alliteration and challenge you to write your own alliteration too. If you'd like to send in your own perfect poem, call 623-282-4080 and leave your little lighthearted lines. No go play. www.buttonsandfigs.com

On this episode we're sailing our sieve to the land of Nonsense with Calef Brown's latest book, "Up Versus Down: Poems, Painting and Serious Nonsense." Calef's nonsense verse shook up our minds, inspiring us to gather wacky words and play. Buttons & Figs kids show you how we played with word associations in order to write nonsense verse of our own - we hope you'll give it a try at home. Calef has great advice if you'd like to write too, be sure to listen to his whole interview. Read all Calef Brown's books aloud (13 to be exact!)for a super, earlicious treat (not to mention reading 13 books would be a nifty little feat.) www.buttonsandfigs.com

How am I supposed to remember our wordplay this week?! Perhaps this Mnemonic Tonic will help....{gulp}! Listen and learn a mnemonic to help you remember the order of the planets...it's one I learned in 5th grade from Mr. Barnett! Then, make up 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.

Cow and Crow think their names should rhyme, which gets them all confused about how to pronounce words ending in O.W.! Listen in on a phone conversation between Cow and Crow and see if you can figure out what they are talking about! 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.

We're going to play with a Bombostic Acrostic Poem! - Listen for the first letter of each line of this acrostic poem and see if you can figure out what phase it spells! (Hint: It's a phrase you hear on just about every episode of Buttons & Figs!) 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 Audubon Poetry Play with poet laureate David Chorlton and his bird Maxi. On this episode David shares his poetry and inspires kids to write poetry in order to better understand their relationship with nature. The Buttons & Figs kids use acrostic poetry play to explore how they feel about the nature and birds and if families want to learn more, we share information about the Maricopa Audubon Society and Audubon.org. If you would like to have some acrostic poetry fun, visit ButtonsandFigs.com and download the free activity sheet that goes with this episode. Beware of the kingdom of the claw...Kakawwwww!