Learning About Non-Fiction

Our students are very fortunate for many reasons, but the one I am highlighting here is about our annual Author Visit. Our PTO always sponsors these visits. We have had some amazing authors in the past including Grace Lin and David Biedrzycki. This year we decided to invite an author who writes non-fiction books. We spend a lot of time teaching our students about text features in non-fiction books, about searching for information, about writing and about drawing "true" illustrations to go with our work. We thought author Melissa Stewart would be a great choice. Our students love her (more than 180) books and we have many of them in our library.

It was a thrill for our young learners to meet a real author and for many to purchase an autographed book by Melissa. All classes read a few of Melissa's books prior to the visit. First graders in Mrs. Paget and  Mrs. Ravinski classes made welcome posters which were hung around the school. Mrs. Teany's kindergarten students each created a poster about one of Melissa's books. It was a thrill for sure when she looked at each drawing and made comments about them. She loved the posters so much she took them home one night to show her husband!

Here is a very short video showcasing the kindergarteners posters. Enjoy!

Here are a few photos from the visit:

Even our Preschoolers had a session with Melissa Stewart!

Kindergarten class

Looking at each and every poster made by students

Autographing a student's book

First graders with a few of their welcome posters

Thank you Medfield K-8 PTO for supporting our literacy program at Memorial School! We are so grateful :-)

Update May 1, 2016: Melissa Stewart was awarded the New England SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Crystal Kite Award for her

book Feathers Are Not Just For Flying. 

Congratulations, Melissa! Our students will be very excited to hear this news.