Miss Popcorn and Friends: Tree Land School Stories, Book 1

Tree Land stories are about a magical school where kids still did the same work found at other schools. But the reason they were willing to work was Miss Popcorn Goat and her friends! This silly goat picked the school, then threw herself a parade! Pretty soon the kids learned how to bring the goat sticker boquets, but she loved clover and roses the best.Miss Popcorn was the school mascot. She liked it when the students were on The Chocolate Porch. Sometimes they sang to her. One of her friends was the Ruler of the school. His name was Mr. Roo Ster. There was a hen who loved to swing. Then the goat had a rabbit friend.The children loved Tree Land parties. There were tons of bubbles everywhere, great food, a goat zoo, monster eyeballs, and kids could even throw wet sponges at the teacher and each other while standing in the target board with their head in the hold. A few times the dads put blankets in the wheelbarrow and gave the kids rides. What fun!Yeah, the students had to spend some time in the classroom, but it wasn’t so bad if they could look forward to a Gate Walk or a chance to go to the Pizza Garden, or even to the Tractor Garden for a while. And the crazy teacher, Miss Landers, always took the fun they had in nature and turned it into a lesson. Aargh! But being outside made it almost okay to do stuff in the classroom. Our teacher wanted us to know where our food came from. She said we wouldn't have animals to cuddle or give us hamburgers without plants. So we each picked plants to grow in our very own slice of pizza in the garden.Eating lunch on the Chocolate Porch gave a fine view of the picnic tables, the play equipment, the Great Rabbit Warren, and of course, Miss Popcorn who lived in Goatrun, Texas, population 1. But when she got a rabbit friend the population grew to 2! Sometimes the kids sang to Miss Popcorn from the picnic area or the Chocolate Porch. It seemed like the frogs, lizards, and hummingbirds chimed in too.No school could exist without a ruler, or maybe you'd call it a principal. Tree Land called it Mr. Roo Step, or the rooler of the school. The afternoon tutoring students knew that every afternoon when The Man with White Hair got off work, he came to help Miss Landers. When he drover up, Mr. Roo flew to the top corner of the 6-foot fence to welcome him. They would visit for a few minutes, then that man would go on in to tutor some algebra or work on setting up the computers for the next day.That took a lot of effort since this was just before the internet made things easier.Roosters like to have some hens around, just to let them hear their crowing. The hens let the students see their eggs and one even loved to swing.Lizard hunting became a popular recess sport after the day the teacher hypnotized a lizard. But the smart students knew to lay the lizard down in the grass after they had played with it, so it wouldn't get eaten by a bird or stepped on at the sidewalk. One day there was a heavy rain which made the students miss recess, but a beautiful rainbow surrounded the playground afterwards. Some kids called that our Rainbow Recess.But the best recess activity was wearing thick gloves to gather sticker bouquets for Miss Popcorn. She loved that, but she loved roses even better. Once in a while, she'd find a way to get out and gather herself some munching roses for a snack.Sometimes the children were jealous of the birds and squirrels cause they had recess all day. At least there were some things we could do outside. We had a week for Volcanic Action. Then in Art, Miss Whitehead taught the students how to look for 4-leaf clovers, then pick the others and make bracelets. The 4-leaf ones were put on display in the classroom.Miss Popcorn and her friends made everything better. Read more