World Read Aloud Day

Thursday, February 16 was World Read Aloud Day.  To celebrate I set up two author Skypes.  One for  K-2nd and another for 4th grade.

4th grade Skyped with middle grade and picture book author, Molly Burnham.  She talked with students about her writing habits, how long she had been a writer, her past jobs and a little about her personal life.  She asked for questions from students.  I forgot to remind students to not ask personal questions.  So of course some one asked her how old she was.  Instead of answering she gave them a math problem.  She was 10 when her favorite movie Star Wars came out in 1977.  How old would she be now?  We had a few students come close to the answer.  She told students to work on it then to have their teacher email her their answer and she would respond back.

We did get some really good questions. One student asked her how long it took her to write her first published book.  She explained that it took her two years to write the first book in the Teddy Mars series but only one year to write the second book in the series because she already knew the characters.  Burnham encouraged students to email her questions and she would respond.

K-2nd Skyped with children’s book author, Stacy McAnulty.  She show students her picture books and then read part of her book The Dino Files.  She shared pictures of her family digging for dinosaur bones.  Her two dogs made an appearance during the Skype and had to be asked to leave because they were a distraction. Ha!  

I got our times confused for this Skype.  I was working with Central time and McAnulty was working with EST.  She worked with us and was able to postpone her Skype with us.  I really appreciated her working with us especially since it was my mistake!

At the end McAnulty encouraged students to go home and read a book to celebrate World Read Aloud Day.