To keep the squirrels away, I ween.
Soon Jack Frost knocked, just for fun;
Out jumped the chestnuts, every one.
Elsie and Fred, on their walk next day,
Found the nuts and took them away.
On winter evenings, cold and long,
They’ll roast the nuts. Here ends my song.
—Selected
Have ready, but out of sight, a chestnut burr, if possible containing some of the nuts. If you cannot get the burr, at least have some of the nuts enough so that each child may have one to eat, after the lesson is over.
Show the children how the prickly burr protects the nuts from squirrels, and from boys and girls, until the nuts are ripe. Then Jack Frost comes along and opens the burr, and the nuts fall out.