School Visits for The Captain's Hat

Illustrator Faythe Mills and I would love to visit your school! Our presentation lasts about 45 minutes. Using a short movie, Faythe shows how her illustrations were born -- the pictures unfold right in front of students' eyes! For my part, I take kids through "growing" a story, from seed, to stem, to bloom, plus read portions of The Captain's Hat to demonstrate how text works with illustrations. Faythe shows the kids (with the help of a volunteer) how to turn an ordinary circle into a 3D ball using pastels.

We've worked with groups as large as 175 and as small as 20, and can do up to five presentations in one day. For older kids (grades 4-6) we can expand the 3D ball pastel lesson to include everyone. We will provide the pastels and paper; there is an additional cost to cover those materials. Please contact me for the cost of this activity; materials cost will depend on how many students are participating.

Click here for classroom discussion questions and activities!

 

 

School Visits for The Cat and the Canvas

With the aid of a PowerPoint presentation and other visuals, I take students on a journey from ideas, to paper, and finally to publication. It's a bumpy road, but worth the trip! I emphasize working hard, believing in your dreams, and never giving up.

"We all appreciated your informative, personal, high-tech, inspirational presentation. I easily was able to refer to your words in my last day 'sermon' to the graduating eighth graders. Thank you for stressing the importance of education and the need to be able to communicate skillfully for understanding. And, they heard what hard work it is to make dreams come true." -- Becky Loomis, 8th Grade English Teacher, Grand Rapids, MN