the girl from Oak Farm
Presented to: ________________________________________________ On your first day at Oak Farm Montessori School: ________________________________________________ By your Montessori teacher: ________________________________________________
the girl from Oak Farm
Dedicated to the children of Oak Farm Montessori School,
in the hope that their experience here will open their minds to adventure and prepare them for lifetimes of exploration,
fulfillment and peace.
On an autumn day when the sky was
bluer than blue,
a tiny acorn fell from a giant oak tree.
Although the tree was rather ordinary, the acorn was not. This special
acorn grew
into a real little girl.
Oakey was her name. She was a busy girl with big brown eyes. She laughed easily with a
smile that delighted the chipmunks and the dragonflies.
Oakey loved her woodland home.
She breathed in the
sweet smell of violets,
and listened to the stories of the jack-in-the-pulpits.
She tasted
cool spring water,
and watched as the sun made little patches of light in the grass.
Oakey could never decide which season she liked best.
She loved springtime,
of course, when the flowers and ferns poked their
heads through the soggy earth.
In summer she would stand extra still so that
Painted Ladies would land on her outstretched finger.
Fall was special too, with its leaping
grasshoppers and
crackling golden leaves.
with its
And then winter came
quiet, restful snow, its long,
blue shadows and the almost-invisible rabbits
in their white winter fur.
As much as Oakey
loved her woods,
she had one wish that her beautiful home could not fulfill. Oakey wanted to see the rest of the world.
She
dreamed of buildings
taller than her tallest trees.
She wondered if there were ponds
even deeper than her pond in the woods.
who used different words,
She wanted to meet people and ate different foods. Oakey
wanted to know about all these things.
One day as she swam in the pond,
Oakey felt a tug, and then a squeeze, and suddenly she was
lifted up – high up
into the air – in the mouth of a blue jay.
Once she got over being frightened,
trees, rivers and country roads.
Oakey looked down over fields,
The world was a beautiful,
endless patchwork quilt!
hop off
She watched children
yellow school buses and heard them laughing
as they ran to their homes with their jackets in hand. One boy turned a cartwheel.
A big girl made sure not to step on any sidewalk cracks.
Soon, the fields turned into
buildings of stone and glass,
and the country roads became busy highways.
Oakey saw factories where mothers and fathers
went to work.
She saw houses so close together
that she wondered if anyone could squeeze between them.
Over a park she saw
girls jumping Double Dutch and a boy in a wheelchair
flying a fish-shaped kite.
Oakey was getting very hungry,
and her mouth watered as they
flew over street vendors
selling fajitas, three-cheese cannoli
and fried ice cream on a stick.
Finally able to speak,
Oakey asked the blue jay
what city it was. When he opened his mouth to answer,
Oakey found herself
Being a quick-thinking girl,
falling through the air.
Oakey used her dress for a parachute and sailed over a rugged, gray mountain with a snow-capped peak.
Oakey passed over a grassy prairie where
everything was green
for as far as she could see.
Then, as she flew over a sparkling stream,
the wind began to nudge her closer and closer
to the ground.
Having had enough excitement for a while,
Oakey rested
in the soft, warm grass.
She thought about all she had seen and heard,
and had no idea that more adventure was to come.
Just then, a brown dog came to the stream for a drink. He found Oakey, took her in his mouth, and headed for his home at Oak Farm.
The dog padded along stopping to sniff at ant hills and spittle bugs. Then he chased a
ring-necked pheasant
through a field of timothy hay.
came along then, carrying a ball.
He threw the ball and it landed close to the railroad track along the far side
Johnny, the dog’s master,
of Oak Farm. As any dog would, the
brown dog dropped Oakey
and went to retrieve it.
Oakey, feeling very tired, spent a
moonlit night near the railroad track.
Train whistles woke her often.
Once she saw a bat flying overhead
hunting insects for a midnight snack. Then, before Oakey knew it,
the sun’s yellow rays were shining in her eyes,
and it was morning.
Johnny came by again,
this time carrying a fishing pole.
He spotted Oakey
and
lifted her
with his hands.
Johnny gently tugged Oakey’s cap off her head and put it to his lips. Then he blew.
Oakey heard the sweetest, most lyrical, music she had ever imagined.
It was
HER music – and so beautiful
she knew that nothing could
ever sound so nice again.
Johnny put Oakey’s cap in his pocket and walked on toward
the stream. He laid Oakey gently into
a field of velvety,
green clover.
And there she stayed, forever.
You might think that Oakey would be sad, but she wasn’t.
She had loved life in her woods.
She had
lived her dream of
seeing the wide, exciting world.
Oakey knew that it was time for her to grow up, and she was ready.
Really ready.
Wow, did Oakey
EVER grow up!
And, on an autumn day
when the sky was bluer than blue,
a tiny acorn fell from a giant oak tree
near the railroad track at Oak Farm.
Written by Sharon Beckman Illustrated by Reed Sprunger Inspired by Bob Kiel and Audrey Riley