LIVERMORE — Third-graders formed frogs with their hands, made mice from handkerchiefs and sang and moved to music during class Thursday.

Musician, storyteller and author Jennifer Armstrong of Belfast captured the interest of Livermore Elementary School students as she taught them a variety of things that had them laughing, singing and being creative within minutes.

The purpose of Armstrong’s school visits this week and last is to enrich students in literature through singing, storytelling, playing games and having fun, school literacy Coach Karen Hardy said.

The events were put together by the Livermore Elementary School Literacy Leadership Team and culminated with pie festivals.

The pie festivals were part of an effort to try to involve more parents and the community in the school, Hardy said.

“We really need to get more community involvement,” she said. Last week’s pie festival raised about $170 with the proceeds going to future literacy enrichment and connecting the community. Another festival was going on Thursday night.

Armstrong showed students in Amanda Gage-Croll’s classroom how to form frogs with their hands. They made eyes and horns with their fingers. She showed them different ways to make them, including making half a frog and then making it whole, just by a turn of their hands.

Next, Armstrong took out a large handkerchief, like those used for bandannas, and demonstrated how to make a mouse. She folded the material into a triangle then rolled it up and shaped it in different ways.

Once she was finished she held the kerchief mouse in her hand and when students went to touch it, it jumped back. When it was their turn they each made their own.

Before long they were singing children’s folk songs and playing a game as the students worked in teams of four. They pretended to lower a bucket into a well to get water as they sang “Draw Me a Bucket of Water” by Bessie Jones, and then hauled it up with a “frog in a bucket” that they couldn’t get out.

Students sat down and joined hands and swayed side-to-side, back-to-front as Armstrong played the fiddle and sang.

When she stopped they begged for more.

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