Open AccessWork & Play: The Finger Plays of Edith Goodyear Alger
Author(s) -
Chloe Kuka
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
source
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2576-5825
pISSN - 2576-5817
DOI - 10.32473/sourceuf.v1i02.114416
Subject(s) - poetry , gesture , clothing , art , space (punctuation) , art history , visual arts , literature , history , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , linguistics , archaeology
The desire to make learning fun clearly motivates Edith Goodyear Alger’s two poetry pieces, “Finger Play” and “Monday.” A masterful blend of poetry and visual art produced in collaboration with illustrator Albertine Randall Wheelan and published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1895, these poems are as edifying as they are entertaining. The lines of simple poetry show children that the chore of washing clothes can be framed as a game, while the lively illustrations of gestures for children to perform while they read, termed finger plays, cultivate imagination by encouraging children to see the “little space ‘twixt fingers & thumbs” as a penny or a cookie.