Thrifty Scissors

Sunday, May 14, 2017

The Plains' Call...

The Plains' Call

by Arthur Chapman

I must ride out on the plains again,

With a horse 'twixt knee and knee,

Where the wolves howl and the winds growl,

And the clouds drift fast o'er me;

I must ride out on the plains once more,

On the Westland's broad and level floor.

I must ride forth on the plains at morn,

Where the cactus flowers are,

And the lark calls, and the white walls

Of the mountain loom afar;

I must ride out, when breaks the day--

Ride where the gods of outdoors play.

I must ride out on the plains at night,

And smell the dew wet sage,

When the moon glows, and the late snows

Gleam like a book's white page;

I must ride out on the plains again,

And quit this haunt of pygmy men.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Rain In Summer

Rain In Summer

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

How beautiful is the rain!

After the dust and heat,

In the broad and fiery street,

In the narrow lane,

How beautiful is the rain!

How it clatters along the roofs

Like the tramp of hoofs!

How it gushes and struggles out

From the throat of the overflowing spout!

Across the window-pane

It pours and pours;

And swift and wide,

With a muddy tide,

Like a river down the gutter roars

The rain, the welcome rain!

This is absolutely adorable!
A baby girl and her father in the rain.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

When Winter Comes

Two squirrels gather nuts beneath a large oak in the forest.

When Winter Comes

by G. H. L.

When winter comes, the squirrels find

Some shelter from the winds unkind;

Some hollow tree where nuts they store,

Enough to last 'till winter's o'er;

There, safe from harm, they build their nest

And settle down to take a rest,

Their larder full of nuts and wheat,

All that they do is sleep and eat;

When winter comes, Ah me! I find

Some thoughtless ones of humankind,

Who never build a cozy nest,

Prepare for time to take a rest;

Who when they strong north wind blows cold

Are friendless, helpless, hungry-old.

The Snow-Bird

Snowy pine or fir trees and a squirrel eating nuts.

The Snow-Bird

by Williams Cullen Bryant

The snow-bird twittered on the beachen bough,

And 'neath the hemlock whose thick branches bent

Beneath its bright cold burden, and kept dry.

A circle, on the earth, of withered leaves,

The partridge found a shelter. Through the snow

The rabbit spring away. The lighter Track

Of fox, and the raccoon's broad paths were there,

Crossing each other. From his hollow tree

The squirrel was abroad, gathering the nuts

Just fallen, that asked the winter cold and sway

Of winter blast, to shake them from their hold

This version was shortened and illustrated for school children. Read the original in it's entirety at the poetry foundation.

Paper cuts of sports and social occasions...

The following paper cuts depict everyday life during Jane Austen's era Ladies and gentlemen are dressed in Empire waist gowns and top hats with canes.

People play croquet, a lawn game using wickets, mallets and a wooden ball.

Gentlemen in the field for a hunt with their sporting dogs and rifles.

Ladies and gentlemen greeting one another with a curtsy and bow.

Two lovers sit on a park bench kissing while another vignette shows a mother with children approaching a column in a park setting.

Don't Belittle Little Things

Picture includes a puppy, bee, garden, flowers, cloudy day etc...

"Don't Belittle, Little Things"

A pup on a lark with a joyous bark,

In the clover was fanciful free.

He scampered amuck; stopped very abrupt,

When he chanced on a big bumblebee.

Now the bee looked up at the lazy pup,

The pup thereupon showed his teeth;

"I've got teeth too," said the bumblebee,

"Tho' I may be little and hard to see."

So he stung the pup with an angry buzz;

Now the pup's not so cocky as he used to wuz.

Old-fashioned figures in profile...

Below are old-fashioned silhouettes (paper cuts) of ladies and gentlemen from the Victorian era.

The greeting.

In mourning.

The argument.

A Wise Old Owl

Picture of an owl sitting on an oak tree limb with a moon and night sky behind him.

A Wise Old Owl

by Le Roy Newark

A wise old owl

Lived in an oak,

The more he saw

The less he spoke,

The less he spoke

The more he heard;

Why can't we be

Like that old bird?

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Polish Gwaizdy Paper Templates

Here are some paper stars from old Poland, these designs may be used for personal crafts. Visit few other web sites for now to see how they were cut. (links for folding below)

More Gwiazdy Paper Cutting:

Monday, May 1, 2017

Song to The Violet

SONG TO THE VIOLET

by James Russell Lowell

Violet! sweet violet!

Thine eyes are full of tears;

Are they wet

Even yet

With the thought of other years;

Or with gladness are they full,

For the night so beautiful,

And longing for those far-off spheres?

Loved one of my youth thou wast,

Of my merry youth,

And I see

Tearfully,

All the fair and sunny past,

All its openness and truth,

Ever fresh and green in thee

As the moss is in the sea.

Thy little heart, that hath, with love

Grown colored like the sky above,

On which thou lookest ever,

Can it know

All the woe

Of hope for what returneth never,

All the sorrow and the longing

to these hearts of ours belonging?

Out on it! no foolish pining

For the sky

Dims thine eye,

Or for the stars so calmly shinning;

Like thee, let this soul of mine

Take hue from that wherefor I long,

Self-stayed and high, serene and strong,

Not satisfied with hoping, but divine.

Violet! dear violet!

Thy blue eyes are only wet

With joy and love of Him who sent thee,

And for the fulfilling sense

Of that glad obedience

Which made thee all that nature meant thee!

On May Morning

On May Morning

by John Milton

Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger.

Comes dancing from the east, and leads with

her

The flowery May, who from her green lap

throws

The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.

Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire

Mirth, and youth, and warm desire ;

"Woods and groves are of thy dressing,

Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.

Thus we salute thee with our early song.

And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

THE COMING OF SPRING.

THE birds are coming home soon;
I look for them every day;
I listen to catch the first wild strain,
"For they must be singing by May.

The bluebird, he'll come first, you know,
Like a violet that has taken wings;
And the red-breast trills while his nest he builds,
I can hum the song that he sings.

And the crocus and wind-flower are coming, too;
They're already upon the way;
When the sun warms the brown earth through and
through,
I shall look for them any day.

Then be patient, and wait a little, my dear;
"They're coming," the winds repeat;
"We're coming! we're coming!" I'm sure I hear,
From the grass blades that grow at my feet.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Thanksgiving Holiday Index

Sample artifacts from the Thanksgiving Index below.

Thanksgiving Day in the United States is an annual festival of thanksgiving for the blessings of the closing year. It is fixed by proclamation of the President and the governors of states, and ranks as a legal holiday.

The earliest harvest thanksgiving in America was kept by the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth in 1621, after the gathering of the first harvest, when Governor Bradley made provision for a day of thanksgiving and prayer. This custom was repeated often during that and the ensuing century. Congress recommended days of thanksgiving annually during the Revolution, and in 1784 for the return of peace. President Madison issued a proclamation of the same import in 1815. Washington appointed a similar day in 1789, after the adoption of the Constitution, and in 1795 he appointed another day as Thanksgiving Day for the general benefits and welfare of the nation. Since 1863 every appointing the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.

Artifacts & Art for Enhancing Lesson Plans:

Monday, April 24, 2017

Break! Break! Break!

Break! Break! Break!

Break, Break, Break,

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter

The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman's boy,

That he shouts with his sister at play!

O, well for the sailor lad,

That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on,

To their haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that it still!

Break, Break, Break,

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

But the tender grace of a day that is dead

Will never come back to me.

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Song for All Seas, All Ships

Song for All Seas, All Ships

TO-DAY a rude brief recitative,
Of ships sailing the Seas, each with its special flag or ship-signal;
Of unnamed heroes in the ships, Of waves spreading and spreading, far as the eye can reach;
Of dashing spray, and the winds piping and blowing;
And out of these a chant, for the sailors of all nations,
Fitful, like a surge.

Of Sea-Captains young or old, and the Mates - and of all intrepid Sailors;
Of the few, very choice, taciturn, whom fate can never surprise, nor death dismay,
Pick'd sparingly, without noise, by thee, old Ocean - chosen by thee,
Thou Sea, that pickest and cullest the race, in Time, and unitest Nations!
Suckled by thee, old husky Nurse - embodying thee!
Indomitable, untamed as thee.

(Ever the heroes, on water or on land, by ones or twos appearing,
Ever the stock preserv'd, and never lost, though rare - enough for seed preserv'd.)

Flaunt out O Sea, your separate flags of nations!
Flaunt out, visible as ever, the various ship-signals!
But do you reserve especially for yourself, and for the soul of man, one flag above all the rest,
A spiritual woven Signal, for all nations, emblem of man elate above death,
Token of all brave captains, and all intrepid sailors and mates,
And all that went down doing their duty;
Reminiscent of them - twined from all intrepid captains, young or old;
A pennant universal, subtly waving, all time, o'er all brave sailors,
All seas, all ships.

by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Alphabet Index

Sneek-a-peek at artifacts and art exercises under this ABC resource.

Alphabet, al fa bet, (from Alpha and Beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet), the series of characters used in writing a language, and intended to represent the sounds of which it consists. The English alphabet, like all those of modern Europe except the Russian, is derived directly from the Latin, the Latin from the ancient Greek and that from the Phoenician, which again is believed to have had its origin in the Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Search the alphabet coloring pages at Crayon Palace
Search the printable alphabet reading resources at Crayon Palace
Color Bible Scriptures from the Color The Bible and at Easter Egg Crafts

Alphabet Artifacts & Art for Enhancing Lesson Plans:

More Links to The Alphabet:

Index page last updated April 26 , 2017

Mrs Bee Explains

Mrs Bee Explains.

Said Mrs. Wasp to Mrs Bee,

"Will you a favor do me?

There's something I can't understand--

Please ma'am, explain it to me;

Why do men build for you a house

And coax you to go in it,

While me--your cousin--they'll not let

Stay near them for a minute?

I have a sting, I do confess,

And should not like to lose it,

But so have you, and when you're vexed

I'm sure you use it!"

"Well," said the bee, "to you, no doubt,

It does seem rather funny;

But people soon forget the stings

Of those who give them honey!"

Time lapse bees hatch.

Monday, January 9, 2017

Arranging flowers paper cut

A Japanese lady arranges flowers inside of a vase in this paper cut.

I've restored paper doll of silent film star Sidney Drew

If the whole is mounted on light cardboard before the figures are cut out,
the different parts will last longer and the tabs will not tear so easily
Color if desired, then cut dotted lines in hats and slip over the head.
Fold base on dotted line to make figure stand.

Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew were an American comedy team on stage and screen. The team initially consisted of Sidney Drew (August 28, 1863 – April 9, 1919) and his first wife Gladys Rankin (October 8, 1870 – January 9, 1914). After Gladys died in 1914, Sidney Drew married Lucile McVey (1890–1925), and the two performed as Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew. Read more...

A charming paper cut of deer

This old paper cut depicts deer and plant forms.

Two different ways to mount your paper cuts and put them on display.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Fairy Friends Paper Cuts

These fairies have butterfly wings and companions who play with them inside of a garden. Paper cuts also include flowers, grasses, birds and animal friends.

Classroom paper cuts of black cats . . .

This black silhouette of a fuzzy cat would make a sweet paper cut for
those of you practicing your cutting technique. He even has a furry chin.

Here is an additional stencil of a furry cat as well...

Magic

Three pussy cats who had no tails, (as may be very plainly seen)
Went for a walk and little talk one magic Hallowe'en
Alas, alack! 'Twas very sad and most unfortunate. I ween
To have no tails to wave about on magic Hallowe'en.

They walked a bit and talked a bit o'er little meadows nice and green

Until they came where cat-tails grow on magic Hallowe'en.

They wished for tails with all their might, with very patient sighs between

When suddenly they got some tails on magic Hallowe'en.

When happy wished come to you

And merry hopes that mean

Much to your blessed little hearts,

Just wish on Hallowe'en!

A seated soldier paper cut

This seated soldier is relaxing a bit with a pipe in his mouth and a bayonet in his left hand. He also wears a army cap and a backpack. The little paper cut is by Sir Robert Baden-Powell.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Early Childhood Education

This three year old (left)
and a five year old (right)
are both learning to
distinguish between shapes.
Both students are in stage 2
of early childhood learning.

Early childhood education refers to the formal teaching of young children by people outside the family or in settings outside the home. "Early childhood" is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling – five years in most nations, though the U.S. National Association for the Education of Young Children defines "early childhood" as before the age of eight.

Early Childhood education focuses on children learning through play, based on the research and philosophy of Jean Piaget. This belief is centered on the "power of play". It has been thought that children learn more efficiently and gain more knowledge through play-based activities such as dramatic play, art, and social games. This theory stems children's natural curiosity and tendencies to "make believe", mixing in educational lessons.

Preschool education and kindergarten emphasize learning around the ages of 3–6 years. The terms "day care" and "child care" do not convey the educational aspects, although many childcare centers use more educational approaches. The distinction between childcare centers and kindergartens has all but disappeared in countries that require staff in different early childhood facilities to have a teaching qualification.

Researchers and early childhood educators both view the parents as an integral part of the early childhood education process. Often educators refer to parents as the child's "first and best teacher".


The assignment shown above is not just entertaining; it serves a very important purpose in the development of small motor skills. This four year old is learning "how" to work with her fingers. In the future, she will be asked to per- form the same movements with a pencil and a eraser.

It is very important for parents to stay engaged in their child's learning process even if they are getting most of their education from a daycare, day home, school etc. The knowledge learned from a parent will be more cherished and remembered by a child then if any other person taught them, especially at an early age. Early childhood education is crucial to child development and should be entered into cautiously with someone you trust will benefit your child.

Much of the first two years of life are spent in the creation of a child's first "sense of self"; most children are able to differentiate between themselves and others by their second year. This is a crucial part of the child's ability to determine how they should function in relation to other people. Early care must emphasize links to family, home culture, and home language by uniquely caring for each child.

Children who lack sufficient nurturing, nutrition, interaction with a parent or caregiver, and stimulus during this crucial period may be left with developmental deficits, as has been reported in Russian and Romanian orphanages. Children must receive attention and affection to develop in a healthy manner. There is a false belief that more hours of formal education for a very young child confers greater benefits than a balance between formal education and family time. A systematic, international review suggests that the benefits of early childhood education come from the experience of participation; more than 2.5 hours a day does not greatly add to child development outcomes, especially when it detracts from other experiences and family contact.

The Developmental Interaction Approach is based on the theories of Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, John Dewey, and Lucy Sprague Mitchell. The approach aims to involve children in acquiring competence via learning through discovery.

Very young students are positively motivated to learn by two basic instincts, pleasure and acceptance.
This little three year old is manipulating brightly colored bits of ribbon and fuzzy pom-poms in order
to create a collage. She thinks that crayons, paper and glue are materials to play with. However,
these art supplies will shape her ability to communicate and to also find pleasure in doing so.
Teachers, parents and caregivers will encourage her productivity and voice their approval frequently
in order to strengthen her will to manipulate the materials more and more as she matures.

There are five developmental domains of childhood development:

Physical This section refers to how well your child is developing physically. You should keep an eye on their eyesight and how their motor skills are developing; they should be able to do small crafts and puzzles.
Social This section refers to the connections they've made with people and how well they are interacting with them.
Emotional This section refers to the emotional connections and amount of self-confidence they have.
Language Development This section refers to how well they communicate with people. Also how they represent their feelings and emotions.
Cognitive Skills This section refers to how the child lives in their everyday environment and how they solve everyday problems.

There are three very basic, age appropriate, stages of early learning:

1. Ages 1-3 Years Old: Learning through the discovery of knowledge:

exploring the five senses
kinesthetic memory
discovery of basic motor skills
identifying self and others
experiments with making sounds and copying sounds

2. Ages 3-5 Years Old: Learning though the processing of knowledge:

identification, definition, categorization of knowledge
development of basic motor skills
social engagement with others i. e. “acceptable behaviors”
learning to read faces, emotions
differentiate between good and bad conduct in oneself and others
learning to make specific sound associated with language

3. Ages 6-9 Years Old: Learning through manipulation of knowledge:

fine tuning (controlling) large and small motor skills
cause & effect social interaction and feelings (Cause and effect theory in academic subjects begins in grade 4; the children approx. 10 years of age.)
Basic academic identification and applications: Integrated studies in multiple academic studies: math, science, art, history, literacy/reading and language (how do subjects compliment each other or relate to each other)
working in a group to achieve a common goal
learning to both speak and identify the language preferences of one's own people and also languages foreign to one's own people
developing and adapting sophisticated memory cues, processes

Watch a candid and inspirational discussion with teachers from the Georgia Wolf Trap / Alliance Theatre community - including the social, academic, and emotional impact of Wolf Trap's early childhood arts education program. Parents can see how an "art rich" curriculum is developed for early learners.

"Early Childhood Education Certification Schools".
"Early Childhood Care and Education". UNESCO.
"National Institute for Early Education Research".
"Early Childhood Education". National Education Association.
"Heckman Equation for Investing in Early Human Development".
"International Montessori Index".

Power To Explore

The learning center strategy uses ten basic learning centers to address the countless objectives of American early childhood classrooms, attempting to develop the student’s social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and aesthetic abilities.

Encourage independent use of learning centers with these quick and easy tips:

One Define the space. Use throw rugs, bookcases, and curtains to help children contain their play within the center.
Two Take a room tour. Start the year by taking a few children at a time on a quick tour of the centers. Show them where materials are and how to put them away.
Three Keep materials accessible. Put current materials for each center in well-defined containers and marked shelves at children's eye level.
FourStore a few teacher materials in each center. It takes too much time to have to search for your own materials. Place your materials on a high shelf in each area.
Five Stock centers sparingly. It is easier for children to manage materials if there are just a few items there. As children learn how to easily use and put materials away, ask them to suggest what new items they would like to add to the centers.
Six Set up portable centers. Use plastic tubs or bins to create portable centers children can take to a private area to work and play.
Seven Make a cooperative center rules chart. At a group time, encourage children to suggest rules for working/playing in learning centers. If children are having difficulty, suggest issues such as sharing materials, respecting eachother's work, and putting materials away.
Eight Display children's work. Use bulletin boards, shelf backs, cardboard boxes or room dividers as a place to show children what others have done in the center.
Nine Set up a works-in-progress shelf. Sometimes children don't have enough time to complete a project in a center. Create a "safe place" where children can store ongoing projects.
Ten Create a take-home box. Set out a box near the door for children to place their finished projects for take-home at the end of the day

There are nine basic learning centers in an early childhood/elementary classroom, each structured to expand the students’ experiences in a variety of meaningful and effective ways. Each center is constructed to encompass numerous objectives, including state and federal standards, school standards, and community standards.

Many church nurseries and preschools acquire large collections of Legos for early learners; when partnered with a nice table and a few extra trays this will serve as a very nice building block center.

The learning centers approach focuses on student autonomy by giving each student an opportunity to explore his learning environment hands-on in a developmentally appropriate classroom. Teachers act as facilitators, providing materials and guidance, as well as planning discussions, activities, demonstrations, and reviews around the learning centers. These should never be used entirely as the only form of teaching in a classroom setting. That being said, learning centers may be integrated into the daily curriculum of a typical preschool or kindergarten.

The art center both personal and multi-cultural visual expression. This center also supports many opportunities for core subject integration such as: science, math, literacy, and history.
The building block center is essential in a pre-kindergarten classroom. Students recreate structural environments and explore concepts taught through math, geometry, and sturctural engineering in this center.
A discovery center is often used to introduce children to nature and/or science.
Dramatic play centers promote social interaction, role exploration, and abstract thinking.
Library centers or literacy centers focus the student's attention upon a particular theme for the week's studies through type and pictures.
The muscle center engages students participate in activities that exercise their bodies and develop large and small motor skills.
Music centers creates opportunities for children to cooperate in activities that stimulate creativity, listening, and language. Children learn the natural intonations and rhythms of language here.
The table games center teaches children to explore an established set of rules.
Writing centers integrate the development of fine motor skills with self expression, reading, spelling and art.
In the manipulative center children play either alone or with each other using small toys to explore identification skills, math, and also story making. This center has similar attributes found in building block centers and dramatic play centers, except that the scale of the toys and environments is much smaller. The child's perception is no longer in the form of role play as an equal to his piers. The child becomes the manipulator of a story or of elements that they can control apart from social engagement if they choose to do so.

Below is a video depicting a wide variety of sensory table ideas. Sensory tables are often introduced into preschool and kindergarten centers by early childhood educators. Children learn to associate ideas with those memories developed through tactile learning as well as the visual. Smells are also integrated into sensory tables although the examples shown here focus primarily on the tactile.

Video by MyCreativeTeacher.com. Children use their senses to understand the world around them. Engaging in valuable experiences is important for building their overall development. Who says sensory tables are only for preschools? Get your child his or her own sensory table so that you can encourage them to investigate, learn and discover!

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Stages of Artistic Development

Visit http://thevirtualinstructor.com for more art lessons like this one. Learn the stages of artistic development and how knowing them will help your drawing improvement.

As young students develop, their art passes through a number of stages. It is thought that all children pass through these stages:

a.) Scribbling: From about their first birthday children achieve the fine motor control to handle a crayon. At first they scribble. The youngest child scribbles with a series of left and right motions, later up, down and then circular motions are added. The child appears to get considerable pleasure from watching the line or the colors appear. Often however children do not pay attention to the edges of the page and the lines go beyond the confines of the page. Children are often also interested in body painting and, given the opportunity, will draw on their hands or smear paint on their faces.
Later, from about their second birthday, controlled scribbling starts. Children produce patterns of simple shapes: circles, crosses and star-bursts. They also become interested in arrangement and can produce simple collages of colored paper, or place stones in patterns. Once children have established controlled scribbling they begin to name their scribbles.

b.) Pre-symbolism: From about age three, the child begins to combine circles and lines to make simple figures. At first, people are drawn without a body and with arms emerging directly from the head. The eyes are often drawn large, filling up most of the face, and hands and feet are omitted. At this stage it may be impossible to identify the subject of the art without the child's help.
Later drawings from this stage show figures drawn floating in space and sized to reflect the child's view of their importance. Most children at this age are not concerned with producing a realistic picture.

c.) Symbolism: In this stage of a child's development, they create a vocabulary of images. Thus when a child draws a picture of a cat, they will always draw the same basic image, perhaps modified (this cat has stripes that one has dots, for example). This stage of drawing begins at around age five. The basic shapes are called symbols or schema.
      Each child develops his/her own set of symbols, which are based on their understanding of what is being drawn rather than on observation. Each child's symbols are therefore unique to the child. By this age, most children develop a "person" symbol which has a properly defined head, trunk and limbs which are in some sort of rough proportion.
      Before this stage the objects that child would draw would appear to float in space, but at about five to six years old the child introduces a baseline with which to organize their space. This baseline is often a green line (representing grass) at the bottom of the paper. The figures stand on this line. Slightly older children may also add secondary baselines for background objects and a skyline to hold the sun and clouds.
      It is at this stage that cultural influences become more important. Children not only draw from life, but also copy images in their surroundings. They may draw copies of cartoons. Children also become more aware of the story-telling possibilities in a picture. The earliest understanding of a more realistic representation of space, such as using perspective, usually comes from copying.

d.) Realism: As children mature they begin to find their symbols limiting. They realize that their schema for a person is not flexible enough, and just doesn't look like the real thing. At this stage, which begins at nine or ten years old, the child will lend greater importance to whether the drawing looks like the object being drawn.
This can be a frustrating time for some children, as their aspirations outstrip their abilities and knowledge. Some children give up on drawing almost entirely. However others become skilled, and it is at this stage that formal artistic training can benefit the child most. The baseline is dropped and the child can learn to use rules such as perspective to organize space better. Story-telling also becomes more refined and children will start to use formal devices such as the comic strip.

The Owl by Tennyson

THE OWL

When cats run home and light is come,

And dew is cold upon the ground,

And the far-off stream is dumb,

And the whirring sail goes round,

And the whirring sail goes round;

Alone and warming his five wits,

The white owl in the belfry sits.

When merry milkmaids click the latch,

And rarely smells the new-mown hay,

And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch

Twice or thrice his roundelay,

Twice or thrice his roundelay;