NYC Department of Education Recommends Hudson Book

The New York City Department of Education, Office of Curriculum, Standards and Academic Engagement, has listed my book -- What's So Great about Henry Hudson -- in its On the Half Moon with Henry Hudson: A Resource Guide for the Quadricentennial.

This is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in learning more about Henry Hudson, the exploration of the Hudson River, New York State Native Americans, the Half Moon, and more.

For the past year, I have been busy traveling around the state to meet with fourth graders who are learning about Henry Hudson and his historical voyage. In our work sessions, we have been creating salt-dough maps of the Hudson River Valley.

Creative Progress

The girls in the Big Sisters program at Five Rivers have made great progress on their living history books.





We also had a surprise visitor! (One of the girls was writing about the eating habits of a porcupine, so one magically appeared!)

Next week, at our final session, each girl will share her story with the group. We'll also be celebrating our creativity. The girls were in charge of planning the party. No detail was overlooked! We will have music, pizza, wings, brownies, cookies, ice cream, and soda. (I'm bringing some veggies and dip to balance out the buffet!)

Hamster Care

As part of the Johnstown Public Library's Storybook Sundae celebration to be held on Sunday, March 21, I have donated a basket called Hamster Care. The "basket" is actually a hamster cage, filled with four zhu zhu hamsters, four sleeping bags, a critter carrier, and a copy of my book, How to Convince Your Parents You Can Take Care of a Hamster.

As one of over 50 anticipated baskets, Hamster Care will be raffled off as a fundraiser for the library.

Please contact the library if you are interested in attending Storybook Sundae or purchasing raffle tickets for any of the baskets. (518) 762-8317.

Torn and Popped

Today at the Big Sisters program, we experimented with two non-traditional illustration techniques for our books.

First, we did a little paper engineering. Here we created a pop-up mouth. I wanted to share with the participants the role of mathematics in children's books! After measuring, folding the paper into right triangles, and inverting the fold, we had a movable mouth.

Then, we created using torn-paper collage. For those in the program who are feeling a little intimidated by traditional illustration techniques, torn-paper collage took the pressure off!

Now the pressure is on! Next week we'll feverishly write and illustrate our stories so we can share and celebrate our successes the following week.

Who's the Dummy?

No one! But we made dummies, dummy books, that is, at the latest Big Sisters gathering. Now we have blank canvases to begin to write and illustrate our stories.




We also continued to work on our personal timelines.

And, we selected our "spirit animals" with which to parallel our journeys. We will grow alongside a river otter, mountain lion, and a domestic cat.

Check back to see what tracks we leave in the snow!

A "Big" Brainstorm

For the past two weekends, I have been spending time at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center working with a Big Brothers/Big Sisters arts-in-education program through the New York State Alliance For Arts Education. In teams of big and littles (mentor and student), we are creating living history books, much like the picture book I wrote for Milton Hershey School.

Today, we got our creative juices flowing by brainstorming descriptive words. The first two and last two sheets here are words selected to describe individuals in the program. The middle sheet focuses on an animal -- the wolf.

To create these books, each writer will select an animal or plant with which to parallel his or her life. For example, a 14-year-old in the program will show significant life events over her fourteen years, while sharing the life cycle of a plant or animal for that same time period. Eventually, we will each create an illustrated picture book to capture these parallel events.

Stay tuned for regular updates on our progress! Great books are emerging!

Connected to Kennedy Center

For the last few weeks, I have been busily creating arts-in-education plans for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as part of its ARTSEDGE program.

Every day has been a learning adventure for me. From "Bibbidi Bobbidi Bach" to "Making Rain," I have immersed myself in curriculum development with engaging and intriguing approaches to learning. Today, my journey takes me to comic strip creation and wearing emotions.

I look forward to sharing some of these lessons with students at schools and libraries. And I thank the Kennedy Center for offering me the opportunity to be part of learning that connects with young people on many levels.