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!

ZOOM VISIT WITH KINDERGARTENERS in Redlands, CA

This morning I had a wonderful virtual visit with Mrs. Huynh’s kindergarten class in Redlands, California. The children have planted a garden and my visit was an opportunity for them to share their gardening project with me and for me to share my new book PLANTING A GARDEN IN ROOM 6 with them.

In two weeks Mrs. Huynh and I will meet in person at the Charlotte Huck Children's Literature Festival in Redlands as we do a joint presentation featuring PLANTING A GARDEN IN ROOM 6 and the hands-on gardening experiences of the children in Mrs. Huynh’s class. We will also share highlights of my virtual visit to her class.

My visit began with me reading the first story in WIGGLE AND WAGGLE, a book inspired by my own gardening experience. They children joined in with their Wiggle and Waggle stick puppets as I read the story and sang the song. I loved their enthusiasm.

I also shared my Peter Rabbit miniature garden, showing it close-up with my computer camera. The kids were delighted to see all the tiny plants and gardening tools.

Then after reading PLANTING A GARDEN IN ROOM 6 aloud and a time for questions, Mrs. Huynh and the children went outside and gave me a tour of their garden boxes where they had planted lettuce, carrots, beans, radishes and other vegetables. It looks like all the plants are off to a good start. They should be able to harvest the first radishes in about a month and some of the other plants too.

At the end of my visit I had time to share my book A ZEBRA’S WORLD. I was pleased to learn that it is part of the curriculum and the children had already read it. I showed them how I made the illustrations for the book. A simpler version makes a great art project for kids. Here's a link to my blog post about doing the zebra art project with Mrs. Best's students at Haynes School. Zebra Stripes Art Project at Haynes School, Los Angeles, CA The template and directions for "Putting Stripes on the Zebra" can be downloaded from my website (the link is in the blog post.) I'm always amazed at how each child makes their zebra unique.

I hope that someday I will be able to visit Mrs. Huynh’s class in person!