Dazzled by Great Grade Five Students and Terrific Teachers
Have you ever been to a surprise party – you know, the kind where someone walks into a dark room and switches on the lights and finds all of their friends there shouting “SURPRISE!”?. Have you ever been that person who walks into the room?
That’s how I felt on my visit to a grade five class at Constable Finney School on Thursday, September 30. No, they didn’t throw me a surprise party. What they did was much better.
These grade fives read “No TV? No Fair!” with their teacher and their student teacher in September. They invited me to visit with them to ask me questions about the book and share some things about the book with me. I thought that sounded great and was so excited for the visit.
When I got there, I was invited to sit down and answer their questions. They were excellent questions and really made me think. The students told me that they enjoyed the book and didn’t want it to end. They wanted to know what happens to the characters after the story is finished.
Now for the extra “SURPRISE” part. I was invited to take a look at a big piece of paper on the wall. I noticed that on it were the names of all the characters from “No TV? No Fair” along with words describing the characters personalities. The students had brainstormed to come up with this excellent list. Next, the students showed me a place on the wall where they had put up drawings of characters from the book. They were awesome pictures, but there was still more to look at!
There was another part of the wall covered with “unfair” stories students had written- stories about unfair situations, all on red and orange papers – just like Chloe’s red and orange moods from the book! There was stunning, colourful artwork made on thin paper and hung on the windows so the sunlight could shine through – a project that Chloe would love to make, using colours to represent emotions. There was even a lava lamp on the teacher’s desk, to remind us of the funny scene where the Lamberts play charades.
As if that wasn’t amazing enough, students had also recorded their own creepy radio play (like the one Mr. Z tells Chloe about) – we listened to it with the lights turned off to add to the spooky atmosphere. Other students did a skit based on the chapter called “Busted!”, with costumes and everything – someone even did the Chicken Dance!
When it was time to leave, the class gave me a lovely thank you card that they signed in every colour of the rainbow, a thoughtful gift, and a book review that they themselves had written to tell me that they enjoyed “No TV? No Fair!”.
I’m honoured that my book inspired so many wonderful things. But the creative thinking and all the hard work was done by the two teachers and all the students. It was simply amazing – congratulations!
I had no idea what was in store when I went to visit that day, but I left feeling full of golden yellow colours, and totally inspired. In fact, I’ve been thinking of ideas for a possible sequel to “No TV? No Fair!” ever since!
Karin 🙂
