School Visit

Yesterday was my first school visit. I went to Farmington Woods Elementary in Cary and presented to both the kindergarteners and the third grade.

We had a lot of fun. First we talked about creativity. I brought a pillow case filled with neat stuff like sun glasses and hairclips and bubbles. Each time I pulled out an item the class would identify what they thought it was. Sun glasses? No, turned upside down. Mickey Mouse ears. Hair clip? No, when placed in the mouth, scary teeth :)

I shared my illustrations with them. I even showed them the t-shirt I won from the Society of Children’s book Writers and Illustrators. I explained how the Society sounds very important : ) I also showed them the t-shirt I won for eating twelve blazing wings in under 5 minutes at Buffalo Wild Wings.

With the third graders we did two creative writing activities. The first one I stole from Leah Palmer Preiss. I told the class to come up with ten things they thought of when I said ten words. The words were place, plant, color, person, etc… Then the students had to write a sentence using all ten words. It was a hoot to hear what they came up with. You would be surprised to find out how many times I was eaten by a Venus Flytrap!

I also had a chance to share some of my writing, both picture books and the first chapter of a longer piece. It was a good experience to read a story to so many children at one time and see their reaction.

Thanks Farmington Woods for having me! You guys were wonderful and asked really great questions.