◆ SpookStack

o™ It has not been too difficulr search, because to a child a cornstalk 1. seldom just a cornstalk. More often than not it has been a child rather than myself, the teacher, who has discovered the uses of grass and acorns and odds and ends. It was Carl who picked up some old pieces of tin and asked me to tie them around his neck so that they would jingle like a cow bell. Ir was Grant who, after building a barn of blocks indoors one day, skipped out into the yard for a moment, returning with smal] bundles of dried grass for hay. It was Willie Mae who first went gather- ing weeds for “greens” to cook in her play- house, and who made “tea” with oak leaves. Nor should I omit to mention that it was a father who brought us a doll made of the tops of coca cola bottles strung to- gether on wires. Some of these mountain people are very ingenious—are forced to become so. I wonder if the experience these nursery school children are having iti usig what is in their environment, in making something out of nothing, may help to foster this ingeniousness. What are some of the other “nothings” that can be used? The grocery stores in the town rwo miles away have given us a generous supply of orange crates for play- ing house and barn and train. Before we had these, we found that an old bench turned upside down made a fine train. And for a house the little girls were quite sat- ished to outline a little area with sticks, then fill ic with tables and stools that were really ttle stumps, and dishes that were old mason jar lids, too bent for real use. Tin cans (with the tops cut out carefully) have always been fine for pails and pitch- ers. A coffee can with a stick placed through a hole punched in the lid is, of course, a churn. ; There are plenty of things to “cook” besides leaves. What abour pretty little white pebbles? Whar about toadstools and berries, and those fruits called “mock ee oranges” in our part of the cou; - », which look very appetizing but are tk actually edible. And acorns— Acorns need a chapter by themselves. We have used them as children in many city schools use boxes of colored cubes, as coal to haul around in small trucks, or if you have an apple truck, acorns can be the apples. They can be potatoes, ice, or meat——anything you need for your truck. We keep great boxes full of them on our sheives. Shiny brown, smooth to touch, the children love them. Outdoors in the eatly spring we “plant” hundreds of baby oaks, and all year long set our tables with acorn cups. [I even made toy chickens out of acorns for the children, by driving two small sticks in for legs and one for a tail (which lends support and enables the “chicken” to stand.) Then, too, acorns can be used for ali kinds of counting games. Why, any- one could start a school under an oak tree! We made potato toys, too; the potato hogs were especially effective. The little sixteen-year-old mountain girl, Dorothy, who was my volunteer assistant for months, brought in one day a whole fam- ily of cornstalk dolls she had made, in- cluding a cornstalk horse. These proved to be not durable enough for children of preschool age, but I should think they would have great possibilities for children a little older. We Paint and Make Music Dorothy also brought us some “orange paint” one day to supplement our small supply of watercolors. “Did you really make this, Dorothy?” I asked. “Yes’m, I made it from a rooe that grows on the side of the mountain. I don’t know the name of it. People use it to stain wood, and it makes a right pretty stain.” This became the children's favorite paint—until the pokeberry season. Then