School Visits

IF A CHICKEN CAN WRITE A GOOD STORY, SO CAN YOU! 

We're booking school visits for 2009-2010 using THE PLOT CHICKENS to show how to write a story. Henrietta, the chicken who learned to read in SOUPERCHICKEN, writes a book and shows how to find a main character, develop a plot, and build suspense by using all of the five senses. Our presentation also shows how we combine traditional painting and digital art. Our first three books using this technique are THE PRINCESS AND THE PIZZA, SOUPERCHICKEN, and POULTRYGEIST. We tried an entirely new illustration process with CHICKERELLA and BEAUTY AND THE BEAKS, using sculpted characters and 3-D scenery.

Our presentation is for Grades 3-5. We do up to three programs per day for Groups of 75-100. Most school schedules work best with a 30-40 minute program followed by a 10-15 minute question and answer session. If your students are reading the THIRD GRADE SERIES, JOURNEY TO NOWHERE, WING NUT, ONE-HANDED CATCH, or A DOG ON HIS OWN, we can adjust the program to talk more about those books.

If you are the media specialist who handles author visits in your school, please e-mail us for more information. Please be sure to give the address of your school. If we have already booked other visits in your state, it will be easier to fit in a trip to your school.

EQUIPMENT NEEDED: For locations within driving distance from Rochester, NY, we bring our own laptop computer and digital projector. For schools beyond driving distance, we'll bring our laptop, but the school will provide a digital projector.

THE SCHOOL PROVIDES:

1. Two microphones

2. Small table for laptop and projector

3. Extension cord with at least two outlets

4. Projection screen

5. A room that can be darkened during the presentation.


THE BOOKS

The visit will be more meaningful if your students are familiar with our books. Even though 4th and 5th graders may not be reading picture books, they'll have more fun if they recognize the illustrations in the PowerPoint program.
If you are school librarian or media specialist responsible for arranging author visits at your school, please e-mail us for more information.

USING OUR BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM:

Teachers are the experts on this subject. If you have been been doing a classroom project using one of our books, and are willing to share it with other teachers, please e-mail us with a description and we'll put it on our website.