AUTHOR VISIT AT CIRCLE VIEW ELEMENTARY, Huntington Beach, California

Library, Circle View Elementary School, Huntington Beach, CA.

Thursday April 24 was my annual visit to Huntington Beach, California for the Author Festival. I have been participating in the Huntington Beach Author Festival almost every year since it started in 1989. I have been doing it so long that I have visited some of the schools twice! This year was a return to Circle View Elementary, which I visited previously in 2018.

A parking place had been reserved for me.

I spoke to two groups of enthusiastic students--fourth and fifth graders. I thank teacher Kelly Wegman for coordinating my visit and Danielle for helping with the tech details. Thanks also to the PTA for a delicious lunch in the teacher’s lounge and for supporting a purchase of books for the library. I always enjoy the chance to chat with teachers and staff at lunch.

Ready for my presentation.

This event would not go on year after year except for the hard work and dedication of Larry Hersh and other volunteers of FOTCL (Friend of the Children’s Library) who have led the festival for many years and kept it alive after a pause during the pandemic. Thank you! I always enjoy the chance to share my books with new readers, to see old friends, and to make new ones. 

CALIFORNIA OUT OF THE BOX: Making History Fun for Kids

I recently had the chance to review the new books for CALIFORNIA OUT OF THE BOX: An Interdisciplinary History Curriculum by educator Christine Echeverri. As I say in the review, it makes me want to be a fourth grader again. Based on literature, both fiction and nonfiction, along with a collection of primary source materials, it makes history come alive. One of the required books in the curriculum is my book TRAPPED IN TAR: Fossils from the Ice Age about the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and the treasure trove of fossils found there. It is one of my favorite places to take visitors to Los Angeles.

Here is my review of the California Out of the Box curriculum:

California Out of the Box: An Interdisciplinary History Curriculum by Christine Echeverri makes me wish I were in elementary school again. I would have loved the literature-based content and the associated hands-on writing, art, and science projects. This interdisciplinary approach to California history is built around a core selection of historical fiction books, field guides, additional nonfiction resources, and a companion book called California Collage: A California Out of the Box Reader. The curriculum is engaging, approachable, and easy for students and teachers to use, either for home-schooling or in a classroom environment. California Out of the Box is designed for students in grades 3 to 6 with 36 weeks of lessons paced for four days a week. It is adaptable to the needs and learning styles of the students, with choices of ways to respond to the material. There are two versions of the book: The Student Book and the Teacher’s Book. The student book includes assignments as well as worksheets and space to write comprehension answers. The teacher’s book includes answer keys and notes for teaching the curriculum. Both books have QR codes with links for each unit, making it easy for students and teachers to follow the curriculum and locate videos and other material on the web. The California Collage reader is a gold mine of supplementary material—stories, poetry, natural history, people, places and notable events, first person accounts such as the writings of naturalist John Muir, as well as material from the National Park Service, newspaper accounts, letters, memoirs, images, maps, photos and more. The three books together—California Out of the Box teacher and student editions, and California Collage—make up a complete curriculum for studying California history from pre-history to the 1930s and is aligned with California State Standards for 4^th grade. Using this curriculum students will develop a deeper appreciation of the richness and variety of the state of California--its people, natural history, geography, cultural traditions, notable events. The California Out of the Box curriculum makes history come alive.

The books are available at Amazon and at the Carrier Shell Book Store on the web.

VIRTUAL SCHOOL VISIT at Ladera Stars Academy, Thousand Oaks, CA

Last Friday I had an enjoyable visit online with Julie Nerland’s kindergarten class at Ladera Stars Academy in Thousand Oaks, California. The kids were very enthusiastic and very responsive. Julie and I struggled a bit with the technology (she never figured out how to get her camera to work so I never got to see the children) but the important part was that the kids could see me and I could hear them. I learned that they recently hatched chicken eggs in their classroom and would soon be adding the chicks to the school flock. Every day children at the school feed the chickens and collect eggs. Because of the kindergarteners’ interest in chickens I focused my presentation mainly on my book HATCHING CHICKS IN ROOM 6 and other books about birds. (We discussed that chickens are birds, and like all birds, chickens lay eggs and have feathers.) I also shared my book A ZEBRA’S WORLD and showed them how they can make their own cut paper art using the downloadableinstructions at my website. We finished by singing the Wiggle and Waggle song, which I acted out with my sock puppets.

I thank Kristen Bott Nordstrom for making my visit possible and for arranging the details. She purchased the author visit for her school at a fund raiser for victims of the recent terrible fires in Los Angeles and Altadena. I was happy to contribute the author visit to the cause.

Note: I am accustomed to using Zoom for virtual author visits to schools. However, this school no longer has Zoom available on their school computers, so we were using GoogleMeets, a platform that neither the teachers nor I had much familiarity with. We made it work but it would have been better if the classroom camera had been connected. Next time!

AUTHOR VISIT TO WPC PRESCHOOL: Hooray for Wiggle and Waggle!

Wiggle and Waggle Sock Puppets

A week ago I made my annual visit to the Westwood Presbyterian Church Preschool, Los Angeles, California. This year, rather than meeting with the children in their classrooms as I usually do, I met with the two- and three-year-olds and their parents as part of their pancake breakfast, and I met with the four- and five-year-olds, outside on the rug in the play yard. The children are always eager to hear about my books. With both groups I read the first two stories in Wiggle and Waggle, inviting the children to sing the Wiggle and Waggle song with me and do the hand motions while I performed the song with my sock puppets. (A link to the pattern for making stick puppets and other Wiggle and Waggle activities is at my website.)

Wiggle and Waggle (Charlesbridge, 2007) and stick puppets.

And, as a tradition that began many years ago, I finished by reading The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, a tall tale about the Hodag, a creature with the head of an ox, feet of a bear, back of a dinosaur and tail of an alligator. With many thanks to Brianne Naiman, the WPC Preschool Director, and to the preschool teachers, for inviting me and coordinating my visit. It is always a pleasure to visit the school and spend time with the children and their teachers.

The Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers (Boyds Mills Press, 2006)

STAND UP FOR OUR SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES: Hands Off! March at City Hall in Culver City, California

Hands Off! March, Culver City, California.

On Saturday, April 5th, I joined thousands of other marchers at City Hall in Culver City, California, to protest the defunding of so many federal programs that people depend on, including services to schools and libraries. It was a day to stand up and be counted. We need our Democracy!