The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

This is our second week enjoying the adventures of Tom Sawyer. 
Last week, we had a lively discussion about what our favorite part of the story is, which parts made us giggle, and which parts made us feel squeamish.    We all agreed that it was clever and hilarious when Tom tricked his friends in to trading a "treasure" in exchange for a chance to whitewash the fence.  We wondered if whitewashing a fence is really as much fun as Tom made it out to be... Outside we went with paintbrushes in hand, to a butcher paper "fence" taped to the wall.  We divided up into two teams, and had a little competition to see which side could whitewash their half of the fence (with water) first.  Turns out,  we DO like whitewashing, but there was no clear winner.
Then we traded our paintbrush for an apple- which we ate while learning more about the author and why he chose a pen name.  Did you know that the story of Tom Sawyer is based on all the adventures Mark Twain had when he was a youngster?  Characters in the story are based on real life characters in Twain's neighborhood.  There is even the cave in Missouri that is named "Tom Sawyer Cave" as it is the same cave that a young Twain went "pirating" in many times.

This week, we started off our class with a "Buffalo Gals" sing-off.  This song is mentioned briefly in the story, and it was fun to sing the non-sensical lyrics with a catchy tune.  We understood why Tom and Huck enjoyed whistling and singing this fun song.
   Next, we turned our discussion to they way that Tom entertains himself.  He has no video games or TV to amuse him.  He uses his imagination while playing outside and magical adventures are happening all around him.  His pockets are full of "treasures" that most of us would consider trash.  We pulled out a pair of Tom's cut-off pants, and took turns reaching into the pockets to see what they contained.  Then we would try to look at the item through Tom's eyes and find imaginative ways to use them and consider them treasures.  We had a really fun time looking through a glass decanter stopper as a prism- or maybe it's a spinning top?  Could the brass key be used to scratch inside an ear?  Or maybe could it be used to dig in the dirt?  A dead rat on a string is DEFINITELY a treasure!  You can swing it around above your head, or even use it to scare the girls.  The item that had us all wishing we had one in our own pocket was the Jews Harp.  We took a few minutes to watch a video about how to move your tongue around in your mouth to make the interesting-sounding music.

Next week, we will wrap up our Tom Sawyer workshop by talking about things that happened while in the cave with Becky.