This Week on Purple Day: Grandpa Ivy & the Pumpkin Mouse

Purple Day is a podcast from Storytime in the Schoolhouse. Our Purple Day podcasts are the audio from Storytime’s Monday episodes. Please note: Storytime is written and recorded for the screen. Some elements of Storytime will transfer better than others.

In this week's episode of Purple Day, we will sing songs about autumn leaves and animals getting ready for winter, and then hear a story about Grandpa Ivy and his neighbor who take care of a wee mouse all winter. This Storytime episode will teach you and your child seasonal songs, poems, and fingerplays as well as a nature-based story. Enjoy Storytime with your child and deepen your connection to each other and the world around you.  

Click here to listen to Purple Day episode 5: Grandpa Ivy & the Pumpkin Mouse.

Every Purple Day, or Monday, we are inside the Schoolhouse for circle time and storytime. 

We enjoy singing and reciting nature-based, seasonal songs and poems during circle time. We start a new circle time at the beginning of the month, slowly learning the songs and poems together throughout the month. We also practice a deep breathing exercise on Mondays. 

After circle time, we listen to a story together. Ms. Becca tells us a Grandpa Ivy story the first week of each month. This week, we hear the story of Grandpa Ivy & the Pumpkin Mouse. In this story, Grandpa Ivy’s neighbor finds Wee Mouse living in a pumpkin at the edge of Grandpa Ivy’s garden. Dante and Grandpa Ivy ensure Wee Mouse is cared for all autumn and winter.

Click here to listen to Purple Day episode 5: Grandpa Ivy & the Pumpkin Mouse.

LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE: A song for the arrival of autumn

This is my favorite autumn song, and I find myself singing it daily as the weather cools and the leaves start to change here in southern Appalachia. Just as this song says, the leaves begin to change at the tops of the mountains and then make their way down. 

Come Little Leaves, traditional

Come, little leaves, said the wind one day

Come over the meadow with me to play

Put on your dresses of red and gold

The summer is gone and the days grow cold.

As soon as the leaves heard the wind’s loud call

Down they came tumbling one and all

Over the hills they dance and they flew

Singing the soft little songs they knew.

Dancing and twirling the little leaves went.

Winter had called them and they were content.

Soon fast asleep in their earthly beds

The snow laid a coverlet over their heads.

Purple Day is a podcast from Storytime in the Schoolhouse. Our Purple Day podcast episodes are the audio from our Monday videos. Storytime members can easily create a rhythm of songs, stories, and creative projects by accessing our complete program of Storytime episodes, curriculum, and resources.

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