Surrendering to holiday down-time, sees me relaxing, and taking time to reflect on the meaningful memories of our time with Todd Parr. Todd was a real treasure to have as a visiting author and artist; he ticked all the right boxes being loved by the students, teachers and parents. Come back soon Todd Parrty!
What a week that was…
Kwame Alexander and Todd Parr were on our campus for a week speaking with ES, MS and HS kids who have all been raving about their presentations. I’ll be posting some of the highlights here. We are so lucky to have authors of this calibre visit SAS.
Four weeks from now, SAS Pudong will host two wonderful authors, Kwame Alexander and Todd Parr for the week of March 14-18. Hooray! More about Kwame later; you will certainly be enthralled by the presentations of last year’s Newbery Medal winner for The Crossover.
We are fortunate to have Todd all to ourselves for the week in our Elementary School, whereas Kwame will be presenting mostly in the Middle School, and also to our Upper ES students.
Todd is a renowned author and illustrator originally from Wyoming, and more recently San Francisco and I can’t wait to see how much fun our students have learning from his many creative experiences. Todd has written a gazillion books for kids, truly, a gazillion, and even has his own TV show. Wow!!!
We already have many of Todd’s books for sale in the Elementary Library, they are priced from 30 rmb to 80 rmb. Thanks to our generous PTSA Eagle Store, every Elementary Student will also receive ONE Todd Parr book free of charge; aren’t we lucky? Thanks Pudong PTSA More details on the available books will be sent home with your child in the coming weeks; we want to make sure you have the opportunity to pick up some wonderful Todd Parr books, as an autographed book makes a wonderful keepsake or gift.
For now, start counting down…the Todd Parr experience is on its way!
We are thrilled to have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR amazing and incredible authors joining us in May. I’ll hold off talking about our ‘One-Day-Special’ with Margi Preus in this post and focus on the three talented folk delighting us for a whole week from May 11th-May 15th.
The authors joining us are: Drumroll Please…
It will be a busy, productive and enriching week for our young people having access to so many opportunities for growth; not to mention that it is also our China Alive week. We have many of the author’s books for sale, which is a great chance to get an autographed copy for your child or as a gift.
Here are the Books for Sale, they are available in the Elementary Library.
The wonderful The Tale of a Dark Horse is about to gallop into our library ridden by the one and only Sarah Brennan!
We managed to secure Sarah during her flying visit to Shanghai for the Shanghai International Literary Festival which ends on March 21st. Sarah will be presenting to our Elementary Students on Wednesday March 19th and I’m especially excited about her session with fourth grade on Nailing the Narrative Curve.
“Writing Workshops: Grades 4 to 6- I also provide colourful and interactive workshops for upper primary children on How to Write A Riveting Story, Nailing the Narrative Curve, An Introduction to Poetry, Books are a Brain’s Best Friend, How to Become a Great Writer and Publishing a Picture Book from Brilliant Idea to Final Product.”
The Tale of A Dark Horse is available for sale, as are all of Sarah’s other books, for 80 rmb starting Monday in the ES Library.
What a cool few days we’ve had here in the ‘Power House’. Welcoming our poets has been a whole lot of fun with Kenn arriving first on Thursday night and Sara, Michael and Anis on Saturday. It’s been great fun talking creativity, poetry and inspiration with these lovely folk, and Hannah and Mimi got a kick out of having dinner with the Children’s Poet Laureate on Friday night. I also think Kenn got a kick out of being driven around a few backstreets, visiting temples and wet markets and taking in some of the sights of ‘real China’.
Tonight we all got together to discuss the week ahead and had some terrific conversations about poetry, publishing, digital days and more. I am lucky to work with such a great team who are always thinking of the best ways to enhance the literate lives of our students. Thanks Barbara and Tim for taking me under your wing.
Here are some poems I’ve written about Kenn, using his great blog as a guide to remind me how to compose a variety of poems. If you can’t write a poem after exploring this page… then you can’t write a poem!
There once was a fellow named Kenn
Who wrote poetry now and again
His poems were funny
And some made him money
He sure had a way with the pen
Welcome Kenn Nesbitt
We know you’ll love SAS
Thank you for coming
Kenn
Witty, Thoughtful
Observing, Noticing, Planning
Author, Creator, Writer, Artist
Counting, Rhyming, Revising
Entertaining, Clever
Poet
K-Kind-hearted
E-Energetic
N-Notoriously Funny
N-Never Dull
N-Naughty
E-Entertaining
S-Silly
B-Blogger
I-Interesting
T- Techy
T-Terrific
Is what a second grader asked me yesterday… moments after her classmate asked if Kenn Nesbitt is bothered by the paparazzi… (how do 7 year olds know about Paparazzi? Lady Gaga is educating the world)
I met Kenn last night, and even for a lolly pop, he’s pretty sweet.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/children/poet-laureate is the place to succinctly explain to your students what a poet laureate actually is.
What is a Children’s Poet Laureate?
Awarded by the Poetry Foundation for a two-year tenure, the children’s poet laureate aims to raise awareness that children have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them.
We’re really excited about the week to come, with not one, but four great poets on our campus. Welcome to not only Kenn, but Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger and Anis Mojgani as our poet for High School.
Stay tuned for World Read Aloud Day (March 5th) and our Annual Books to Eat Competition coming up right after our poets leave.
In just ten days from now, our visiting author, Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt, will be hopping on a plane, and making his way to Shanghai….
Why you ask?
To see US??? YES-YOU! We are going to be in for a treat having Kenn ALL TO OURSELVES in the Elementary School for five glorious days. It is a wonderful opportunity for our students, especially considering all of the poetry the students have been creating over the past weeks. Students are still creating lovely pieces, exciting poems and musing lyrically in their classes as we speak… and many have co-ordinated their poetry units around Kenn’s visit.
I really enjoyed looking through the many blogs our teachers work hard on, and browsing through the poetry of our students. Thanks to teachers like Ed Hagen for posting photos of your students at the poetry slam, as well as actual copies of his students’ poetry. Meanwhile across the hall, here are some of Emmy David’s parents and students celebrating the success of 2ED.
Considering the fireworks we’ve all just experienced, I really enjoyed 1EV student Sisi’s poem.
Fireworks
By Sisi
Pop! Like
Some
Popcorn so
Many
Colors
Bursting in the sky
Like a sparkling star
Disappearing in the dark, black
Sky
Little bees falling
From the sky
I must also compliment my daughter Mimi from 1CN for writing about love…
Love by Mimi
Love is special
Love is everywhere
Love is in your heart
and in the air
Love is forever
We are excited to be hosting our first author for the 2013-2014 school year, Sarah Brennan, on Monday October 28th. Sarah will be presenting to students from Pre-K-4th grade in our Elementary Library and her books will be on sale all of next week if you’d like to buy one and have it signed by her. 
Sarah has visited Shanghai many times and you may have been lucky enough to see her at the Shanghai Literary Festival or even here at SAS a couple of times. She has a large and joyful personality and gives 110% to all of her presentations, leaving audiences inspired. I am always impressed listening to Sarah and believe our students benefit from her real-life learning experiences and the attention to detail she puts in to explaining the writing process.
Here are many details from Sarah that outline her career in a nutshell, but I know you’ll love to look at her fantastic website where she regularly updates her blog and also offers many opportunities for YOU to write for her… competitions aplenty here. Sarah Brennan is the Hong Kong-based international author and publisher of the best-selling Chinese Calendar Tales (The Tale of Chester Choi, The Tale of Run Run Rat, The Tale of Oswald Ox, The Tale of Temujin, The Tale of Rhonda Rabbit, The Tale of Pin Yin Panda and her latest title The Tale of Sybil Snake) as well as the hugely popular Dirty Story series. She is also author of the humorous parenting advice manual Dummies for Mummies published by Haven Books. A featured author in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing International Literary Festivals since 2004, Sarah conducts regular reading tours, workshops and weeks in residence in schools in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Australia and the UK. Her books are now also distributed in the United States and Canada. As it is now the year of the Snake in the Chinese Calendar, we will have many Sybil Snake books on sale for 80 rmb each.
Sarah’s particular mission is to bring Chinese culture, history and landscape to young English speakers everywhere through the medium of humour, verse and funny illustrations, while at the same time giving children living in East Asia stories that relate to their own heritage. She also believes passionately in rich vocabulary and intelligent text for primary school children: “dumbing down” is her particular bête noir! As a result, her books can be read on many levels and are popular among children aged as young as 5 and as old as 12. The great Australian author Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s List) has described Sarah’s work as “a meeting between traditional Asian narratives and the universal taste of children for graphic stories. The tale-telling gifts shown in these books, along with the exuberance of the language and rhymes, make them unique in children’s literature”. All of Sarah’s books are wickedly illustrated by Hong Kong’s much-loved cartoonist from the South China Morning Post, Harry Harrison. Sarah lives in Hong Kong with her French husband, two daughters and an opinionated cocker spaniel. Visit Sarah’s funny and fabulous website at www.sarah-brennan.com and blog at www.sarahbrennanblog.wordpress.com!
the barefoot librarian 