Author Visit at Golden Oak Elementary School, Shafter, CA

Welcome sign at Golden Oak Elementary School, Shafter, CA

Last week on Thursday I had an excellent author visit at Golden Oak Elementary School in Shafter, California, where a colorful sign welcomed me to the home of the Golden Oak Tigers.  During the day I gave four presentations in the multi-purpose room and autographed books in the library. The students were an enthusiastic audience and excited about my visit.

Autographing books in the school library

I was pleased that the students had read so many of my books and I could see from the creative  bulletin boards they had prepared for my visit that they had learned a lot from my books! At the end of each assembly the students had excellent questions and comments. I thank Principal Annette Blacklock for inviting me to Golden Oak and Assistant Principal Gloria De Hoyos-Tapia for her help during the day. I especially thank fourth grade teacher Christine Bryant for coordinating the details and schedule of the day, the book sale, the delicious “Mexican Fiesta” potluck lunch with the teachers, and for being my companion throughout the day. I also thank her students for making the wonderful welcome sign using cut-paper art. Altogether it was a most successful day! 

Here are the bulletin boards made by each grade:

Kindergarten and Pre-K students made animals of the rainforest with monkeys and snakes swinging from paper chain vines.

First graders made panda faces from paper plates.

Second graders learned about day and night animals in the desert and the rainforest and made their own cut-paper art.

Third graders drew a picture of me and scenes from their favorite books.

Fourth graders created their own versions of the terrible Hodag using tufts of colored tissue paper.

Fifth graders learned about birds and the art of flight, answering the question “Does bird flight connect to the engineering principles of paper airplanes?”

Sixth graders learned about birds and created tweets of fascinating bird facts such as “Wow! I didn’t know that birds have hollow bones.”.