It started with a
blog post about our Literacy Day a couple of weeks ago. One of our Kindergarten classrooms did their door decoration about The Pout Pout Fish and the Big Big Dark. Well, imagine our glee when the author herself left a comment on our blog post! I looked up
Deborah Diesen's blog and found her email, and emailed her to thank her. I also asked her if she would be willing to skype with the class and she said Yes!!
On Monday I got a wonderful envelope with a picture of Mr. Fish on the return address label.
I opened it and was so excited to find bookmarks for the students each signed by Mrs. Diesen herself!
Today was the big day! At 9:00 we Skype called Mrs. Diesen and got to talk to her! She answered lots of questions. Many were typical Kindergarten questions such as what are your kids names and how old are you, but some asked book questions like how did you come up with Mr. Fish and are you working on a fourth book. She was very good with the kids and answered everything they asked her with a smile. The kids learned that often authors and illustrators don't work together to make the books, she has a fourth book coming out soon, and she came up with Pout Pout Fish when she was making faces trying to make her son laugh one day!
Then, she read us Pout Pout Fish and the Big Big Dark!
She even taught us hand motions to go with the refrain so we could do it together.
Strong like a shark!
We passed out the bookmarks and the kids were so excited! One even put both hands on her face and made a face almost like the Home Alone face she was so happy!
THANK YOU
MRS. DIESEN! You made our day and helped this group get even MORE excited about reading!! We appreciate the bookmarks and your time. I think these kids will always remember this experience. I can't say enough about how much we appreciate it and how much we enjoyed it.
It was truly a joy to Skype with the class! What wonderful questions and enthusiasm. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thank you, all of you!
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading!
Debbie Diesen
Thank YOU again!
DeleteAwesome! I'd so love to do this sometime. I have an ActivBoard in the MC and several webcams that I have yet to install. Not sure where to put them for optimum viewing. Where did you mount your webcam so that Ms. Diesen could see your kiddos in the MC?
ReplyDeleteHi Jo! We have a cart to the side of the SMARTboard (the last picture of Mrs. Diesen is taken of the monitor on the cart) that holds the computer, etc. I just have a simple webcam plugged into the usb there and sitting on top of the cart. I moved it as she was talking to the kids because you could not see them all at once, but you could see several of them. I have moved the tables before and you could see most of the kids if they were sitting on the floor. I have also done it where the kids asking the questions came up to the cart and stood right in front of the camera. But, since these were Kinders, we wanted them to stay seated, I wasn't sure if they would be tall enough anyway. If I point it at me standing at the monitor it works for me to skype one on one with classes too. Let me know if you need and I can snap a picture to post too.
Delete