Roland Smith also writes about the Pacific Northwest. Our fifth graders created these fabulous Thunderbirds!!

More pictures

Here is the promised mural with the leopards, or maybe they are jaguars.

There are also some cool black panthers and snakes.

A party for writers at my school

Every year one of the schools in our district hosts the Young Authors Conference. This is an opportunity for all students who have written a book to showcase it and also to hear a famous author speak about his craft. This year the speaker is Roland Smith, the author of many successful children's books. He will present at the Conference and subsequently there will be a number of workshops presented to students. Our school is the host school this year. Since Roland Smith has published a number of books about animals, we have made animals and their habitat the theme for the conference. Parents and students have worked together on wonderful displays in our building.

Writing is a favored activity in our school. Through a program called Bookbug, our students can write their own books and we have parents that will turn those manuscripts into hardbound copies. We have a number of excellent writers among our students and many Bookbug books reside in our library.


This is the display in the second grade hall. It shows the otters the second graders made in art class.

When you make the otters white you can see their faces better!!!!

Roland Smith wrote a book about otters and also a book about elephants!
Third Grade had a wall full of elephants and they wrote elephant facts inside little white folders with an elephant picture on the front. They learned lots about research and about elephants.

Next week I'll share what the other grades did. Wait and see the leopards!!!!

Yesterday we had a long ice storm. It sounded like a giant throwing little pebbles against our windows all day long. We often have ice storms in Philly. They happen when the warm ocean air coming up the coast from the south hits the cold air coming from the mountains and Canada in the North. The result is dangerous but also beautiful.

Philadelphia flowershow

Oma and Grandpa went on the train to the flowershow. Oma wanted to walk slow and take pictures of all the flowers. Grandpa said he wanted to SEE the flowers, not STUDY them!!! Grandpa did want to study a pergola. He wants to build one for the new patio.

Clifford Day

All of our first graders looked forward to Clifford day. Everyone was allowed to pick out a free Clifford book. Then you had your picture taken with Clifford. Weren't we surprised when Emily Elizabeth also stopped by. We all sang the Clifford song and yelled loud at the end of each verse: THE BIG RED DOG!!!!! Well he really was very BIG!

I am working on my first post. Stay tuned!!!