68th BREAKFAST WITH THE AUTHORS, Santa Barbara, CA, Pajama Party Zoom Edition

Screen shot of authors and participants at the Santa Barbara 68th Breakfast with the Authors

On Saturday, November 14, I and eighteen other authors participated in the first ever Zoom Breakfast With the Authors in Santa Barbara. There were two sessions. The first was a set of three 20 minute workshops, with authors and illustrators sharing tips with participants. In my session, I worked with students to create a pyramid poem inspired by a photo of an animal. This is a writing project I have often done as a writer's workshop when I do author visits at schools. Using a photo of a mother bear and her cubs as our inspiration, we created the following poem:

Bear

Mother bear

Mother brown bear 

Mother brown bear drinks slowly

Mother brown bear drinks slowly in Alaska.

Mother brown bear looks like a vacuum cleaner as she drinks slowly in Alaska.

If I were a brown bear I would eat all the fish in the river.

In the second half of the mornng, I and each author gave a 3 minute presentation, followed by an informal question and answer session in small groups.

Many thanks to Scott Spector, Rachel Lawton, Matt Zuchowicz and Fred Borchers at the Santa Barbara County Office of Education for organizing the event!

FIFTY NIFTY PROJECTS FOR KIDS

Are you looking for something to do while school is out for summer vacation? At my website you can find FIFTY NIFTY PROJECTS that you can do in connection with reading my books. Most of the the projects use materials easily found at home or at school. They range from writing a pyramid poem to putting stripes on a zebra (cut paper art) to simple science experiments like finding out how icebergs affect sea level.

Go to My Books at my website to find more information about the books that inspired these projects. Many of the books are available as e-books that you can download from Amazon and other platforms.

Have fun!
Here are a few examples of the projects you can do:

Curlycue Snakes
(Read SNAKE or A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE DESERT)

Make a model of the Taj Mahal
(Read TAJ MAHAL)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Geology
(Read TRAPPED IN TAR or GLOBAL WARMING AND THE DINOSAURS)

WRITING and ART PROJECTS REINFORCE READING: Preparing for an Author Visit

Cut-paper sloths and penguins circled the space for my slide presentation.

I am always impressed by the wonderful activities teachers and librarians do with their students as they prepare for an author visit. By the time the children come to my presentation they are excited to meet me and love hearing me talk about books they have already become familiar with.

Children listed their favorite penguin facts from my book A Penguin's World. Cotton balls decorate their cut out penguins.

On my recent trip to northern California for the Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival, I visited Arcata Christian School (K-8.) Every wall in the room where I presented was covered with projects the children had done after reading my books. From poems and reports to drawings and cut-paper art, the children’s creativity was evident everywhere.

Teacher Vicki Childress and her butterfly cake. Colored festival posters decorate the walls.

I thank all their teachers, especially Vicki Childress, for doing such a great job preparing the students. Vicki coordinated my visit and made a special cake decorated with a beautiful image of a painted lady butterfly. She told me that she looked at the photographs in my book, Butterflies in Room 6, to make sure every part of the butterfly was accurate. After lunch, I cut the first slice and the cake was just as delicious as it looked. Later in the day, the students all received a piece as well. I know that the children will have fond memories of “Author Day” not only because of the cake, but because of all the projects they did in connection with my books. Here are a few samples:

First and Second graders read Wiggle and Waggle and wrote about their favorite part.

The children read and illustrated all four of my Habitat books, using my cut-paper technique. These are some of their pictures inspired by A Day and Night in the Forest.

Mountain lion. Older students made drawings of their favorite animals and wrote pyramid poems (directions are on my website.)

Jaguar. Younger students wrote haikus about their favorite animal.

Transparent butterflies decorated the sliding door.

A coloring page with theme art from the festival helped to build excitement for the bi-annual event.

Author Visit at Redwood Elementary School, Shafter, CA

Animal faces made by pre-K students at Redwood Elementary School, Shafter, CA

Last Wednesday I had an excellent author visit at Redwood Elementary School in Shafter, California, located in Kern County near Bakersfield.  I made two presentations in the large activity center–one to students in kindergarten through second grade, and another to students in fourth through sixth grade. They were excited to have a chance to meet me and were a very enthusiastic audience. The school mascot is the bald eagle so they particularly enjoyed learning that it takes two students with their arms stretched out to equal the wingspan of a bald eagle. 

Forest animal biome poster

I was especially pleased with the preparation for my visit. All the students had read at least some of my books, either as traditional books or as e-books, and many of the classrooms had done projects inspired by my books. The teacher’s lunchroom was decorated with wonderful animal faces made by pre-K students and moose pictures by first graders. Construction paper monkeys and other rainforest animals decorated the windows. Zebra striped balloons, napkins, and table cloths completed the animal theme. I enjoyed the chance to chat with teachers during the lunch period and to share in the delicious food.

Rainforest animals decorating the teacher's lunchroom

After lunch I autographed books in the library. (Students had pre-ordered books from Barnes and Noble.) I thank principal Rosa Romero and vice-principal Monica Garza for inviting me to Redwood and for doing such a good job of organizing the day. And I especially thank First Grade teacher Virginia Kulzer for being my assistant all day long and doing a great job of introducing me to the students. Altogether it was a very successful Author Day!

Animal pyramid poems on display in the library