Preparing for Veteran's Day Observance: Author School Visit

Author-Illustrator School Visit: South Carolina

Those of you that know me, know how much I LUV LUV LUV making my visits to schools wearing my author/illustrator hat. Every visit is unique. Every visit is tailored specifically to the school and their needs. Every visit is special to me. EVERY visit. Having said that? 

I absolutely ADORED my recent school visit in South Carolina! I got to work WITH the students in response to my picture book illustrations....... see what these first graders came up with while I snapped photos! The photos that follow are of what I will loving remember as my first 'artist-residency.' Different that my assembly presentations. INCREDIBLE! 

There were MANY things to LUV about this particular visit! For one thing, I was being hosted by my dear friend Della Johnson, who I see out-on-the-road at conferences as she is a frequent presenter 'on the circuit.' Way last summer Della invited me to join her in collaboration for a presentation at NAEYC next month! 

These are the hands of her students -- hard at work! 

Our NAEYC workshop is: 

"Making Stories Unforgettable by Integrating Music, Drama, Dance and Art."  

Thursday morning, Nov. 21 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30! 

Room 204C 

Mark your calendars now! 

Our time together included me giving 'assembly-style' presentations in their multi-discipline space for all of the kindergarten classes in the building and then a second hour long assembly for all of the first graders. 

None of that was the least bit out of the ordinary and we had a fantastic time together, with me introducing everyone to each of my three picture books, punctuated with an active one of my song-dances in between the more sedentary presentation of the books. 

I pretty much have that down to a science and can hit plug-and-play. 

What was absolutely different and incredibly powerful and unique? 

We designed my time in their presence to include a visit to Della's classroom where together the two of us directed her students to create 'quilt squares' (from construction paper) in response to the quilted illustrations I made for my book, "Red, White and Blue." 

Here's all of us posing with the amazing work....

Not quite finished, but well underway in the time we had available. 

Della has intentions to take these and create a class 'quilt' in time for Veteran's Day. 

Here's a peek at what my picture book looks like. 

This is an 'earlier' amazing class collaboration in kindergarten. This next image is Carie's Kindergarten and the MARBLE PAINTED construction paper quilt that they created..... that ended up being 19 feet wide and 11 feet tall. You can click back to her 'label' here to see all of our adventures together. I got to visit her school last spring! Carie is a US Army Veteran, having served a year of active duty in Iraq. She combined her appreciation of quilting and the flag together in this monumental undertaking. 

My song came first. 
I wrote it immediately in the aftermath of September 11th. 
It took me y-e-a-r-s to create the picture book format --
where I made the illustrations from fabric as small quilts. 

The song version is now in a zipped file for your immediate digital download. 
You can purchase it at our Early Education Emporium or Teacher's Pay Teachers. 

If you're quick you have time to order the picture book from EEE or TpT. 



Getting 'feedback' is the ultimate of social media sharing. 
I am so grateful for those that share their response to my work: 
leaving comments, pinning my articles, tweeting my efforts. 

It is a HUGE help when you leave feedback at TpT for others to eavesdrop on how you're using my projects. 
Take a look at what insight others have to share. 

Here's another classroom quilt created by second graders in Indiana -- prior to my arrival. You can see the specifics of that school visit in this earlier article. 

If you like these collaborative quilting projects, 

you'll want to be certain to check out my earlier quilt RoundUP article. 

As always. 
As a self-published author, your pin means the world to me! 
Thanks for your help in sharing my work with the wider world!