Lewis and Clark Learns

Today, 24 fifth graders were rewarded for their dedication to reading! They spent the morning skyping with author Kate McMullen and meeting Roland Smith in person...what a presentation he has. The fifth grade kiddos earned this event by reading all twelve 2011-2012 Mark Twain nominees. Way to go! Upon arriving back at school, we enjoyed pizza and brownies for lunch and reflected on our morning. Huge thank you to Mrs. Arth (AD librarian) and Andrea Sumy (Director of Library Media Services) for organizing the event and making it all possible. Comments from our morning... "I loved listening to how the authors got inspired to write and how they got started." "Today was totally AWESOME. I loved the authors and I got good advice from cool authors." "I learned that it might take a long time to make a book, but it is worth it." "I loved seeing famous people in person." "It was great listening to Roland Smith because he was ...

Twenty two 5th graders were invited to attend the DNA literature festival organized by the Reading Reptile book store because they read all of the 2010-2011 Mark Twain Nominees. We were able to listen to Jennifer Holm and Tony DiTerlizzi talk about writing and their books. Read below to see what the kids thought of the event... "The best part was seeing the draw offs and hearing about new books/series I might want to read." Andee "BEST FIELD TRIP EVER." Jami "The best part was getting to hear about how the 2 authors write." Hailey "Lots of information (learning) even though not at school." Nathan "I think it was so much fun and I enjoyed it." Zach "The best part was getting to see one of my favorite childhood authors ( Jennifer Holm) even though she completely ignored me when I raised my hand." Allison "I got to listen to two really cool authors talk about their books." Reilly "An amazing experience and an incre...

Be sure to read the announcement in the library about attending the Reading Reptile Literature Festival...it is sure to be a grand time!

Today, 14 fifth grade readers attended the literature festival at Rockhurst University. We met authors Patricia Polacco and Brian Selznick. They were great presenters. Read all about our experiences, opinions, and thoughts about the authors.

Kids who attended the Literature Festival in Warrensburg, please respond to the following questions... 1. Did the Literature Festival encourage you to read? Why? 2. Did the Literature Festival trip motivate you to write more and/or better? Why? 3. Who was your favorite author? Why?

Mrs. Foust, myself, and 14 fifth graders traveled to Warrensburg, Missouri to attend the University of Central Missouri Children's Literature Festival. Each year we take our fifth grade readers who have made it into the MT Challenge Cycle. A big thank you goes out to our fifth grade teachers for supporting the MT program and our PTA for supporting the trip financially! We saw four great authors and learned something about writing from each one. Roland Smith shared his usual fabulous presentation focusing on the fact that anyone can be a writer...you have to be passionate about your topic and you have to up for a lot of revisions. He also talked about his new series, IQ. Many of the kids have read the first book in this series (Independence Hall) and were thrilled to hear the second book should be out next spring. To learn more about Roland Smith and the books he writes, visit his website at http://www.rolandsmith.com/ Lea Wait was the next author we visited. She talked briefly ab...