Schools

AuthorFest Underway This Week at Greenwood Elementary

Event running from Feb. 11th to 15th brings in published authors to teach the students about their trade.

The following was provided by Colleen Guida, chair of Greenwood School's AuthorFest:

The Greenwood Elementary School is holding its 11th annual AuthorFest this week.  The Greenwood staff and AuthorFest committee are very excited to be celebrating eleven years of bringing literacy to life in the the form of author visits and fun, creative activities.  This weeklong event, sponsored by the Greenwood PTO, will bring in nationally recognized and published authors and illustrators to share their knowledge of composition, story development, editing and publication.  In addition, teachers have shared the featured author’s books with their classes prior to AuthorFest. 

The goal of AuthorFest is to promote a commitment to literacy and composition while supplementing the town wide language arts curriculum.  For the last ten years, families and teachers have related examples and stories of how this event has provided the children with valuable concepts and ideas that they can use throughout their school years.  Moreover, the event has succeeded in building upon the concept that reading and writing can be fun and creative, which has spurred many children to become even more engaged readers and writers. 

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Before the weekend's blizzard, Marty Kelley, who has visited the Walton School in the past, Monday's scheduled guest author for the second graders.  Marty comes to us from Southern New Hampshire and offers a very comedic, wry and “bouncy” approach in his illustrations and writings.  He has written 11 books including, “Twelve Terrible Things,” “Winter Woes” and “Messiest Desk.

First graders are in for a treat on Tuesday as Reading-based author/illustrator Scott Magoon comes to the Greenwood for the third time to share his talents.  His enchanting work can be seen in such books as: “The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster,”  “Spoon,”  “Mystery Ride,” “Mostly Monsterly,”  “Chopsticks” and the newly released,

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“The Boy who Cried Bigfoot.”  As an art director who taught himself how to draw, Magoon will surely inspire our young artists while using an Ipad to show how his drawings come alive.  He firmly believes that “the best stories for kids seem to come with messages of hope, no matter what happens.”

For the third year in a row, we are delighted to welcome back to the third grade author and photographer, Judith Jango-Cohen, on Wednesday.  Jango-Cohen brings a multi-faceted background as an educator and naturalist photographer with a degree in biology.  Her presentations are based on more than 50 books that she has written and will delve into writing, science and social studies while interacting with the students in a fast-paced, sensory filled manner.  After her presentation she will engage the students in smaller groups for workshops that the Greenwood teachers are thrilled to see go along with their writing curriculum.

Thursday, Greenwood will welcome back AuthorFest veteran author and illustrator, David Biedryzcki, to visit the kindergarten classes.  He will using his writings and illustrations as seen in such stories as, “Ace Lacewing, Bug Detective,” The Beetle Alphabet Book,” “Santa’s New Jet” and “Me and My Dragon.”  During his visits, Biedryzcki teaches students about creating graphics from pencil to computer for books and commercial products.

Also on Thursday, AuthorFest is very excited to be bringing in the author of the celebrated and highly popular series,

“The Lemonade Wars,” Ms. Jacqueline Davies.  Jackie will travel up

Rt. 128 from Needham to present to our fourth graders.  Jackie has just released the  fourth book in the Lemonade War series and has written six other acclaimed books.  Jackie will also gather the fourth graders for intimate writing workshops that will surely give the students the writing itch.

AuthorFest will wrap up the week in true Greenwood AuthorFest fashion with a fun-filled Friday starting with guest readers from the high school’s Best Buddies program who will be visiting each classroom to read to the students.  The week will culminate with the annual AuthorFest Parade featuring K-2 students while the 3rd and 4th graders create memory books and journals to start their own stories.

The 2012 AuthorFest committee is extremely grateful to all of our wonderful supporters and would like to recognize them:  The Wakefield Educational Foundation (WEF) and The Greenwood PTO.  This event would not be possible without their support.  For more information about AuthorFest, please contact Colleen Guida at rhguida@hotmail.com and check out their facebook page at www.facebook.com/GreenwoodElementaryAuthorfest.


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