Meeting Authors Who Inspire Us
This week our 5th grade Lil’ Longhorns got to meet and visit with two amazing authors. First, Andrea White visited our school and spent an hour talking with our 5th graders about how she became an author, how she uses history and science to inspire her writing, and about her newest book, Windows on the World. She gave each of our students a personal copy of Windows on the World which we are now reading together. It has expanded our repertoire of reading to science fiction and all of the amazing creativity found there. Mrs. White has 42 new fans at UT Elementary. We all plan to read her other novels. Here is a link to some of her books and a bio about her: http://www.brightskypress.com/?id=358. Check it out! Thank you Mrs. White!
The very next day, our 5th graders Skyped with author, Deborah Hopkinson, from Portland Oregon. Ms. Hopkinson also uses history and science to inspire her writing. We used two of her beautiful books during our Underground Railroad studies, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt and Under the the Quilt of Night. She has several new books coming out that we are anxious to read: Titanic and A Boy Called Dickens. Here is a link to her website: http://www.deborahhopkinson.com/ . Ms. Hopkinson talked to us about writing and also holding down a full-time job. She encouraged each of us to write about what we are interested in. It was fun asking her questions about how she gets her ideas and finds the time to be so creative. Thank you Ms. Hopkinson!
Both authors visited our classroom the same week as our school-wide book fair and Dr. Suess’s Birthday Celebration. They were a huge success. On Friday we celebrated Dr. Suess’s birthday and had honored school supporters come and read to each classroom and bring snacks for all to enjoy. Fifth grade got to listen to Mr. Klein read Oh the Places You’ll Go and then Mr. Joseph read Yertle the Turtle. They were both wonderful. We made connections to our lives and history in both books! Thank you Mr. Klein and Mr. Joseph!
On Thursday, we celebrated our Annual African American Heritage Festival with an evening of music from the incredible UT Jazz Band, our own Mrs. Margaret Wright, and Combo Saborea, and soul food from families and friends. We also kicked off our water sales for H2O for Life alongside our Book Fair final sales night. Campus teachers and parents helped make this very special event a success. I’ve uploaded some photos of our author visits, African American Heritage Night, and Dr. Suess’s Birthday on Friday. We finished off our busy week on Friday with Ballet Afrique, music, and dancing. Check out photos on our school website.
Thanks for reading my blog. Peace out.
July 6th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
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