Our Roland Smith visit!!!!

Our visit with Roland Smith was the culminating event in our One Book, One School program this year.  The entire school read I, Q and were waiting with great expectations for the arrival of Mr. Smith.  He did NOT disappoint!   Roland Smith was engaging and witty and held the kids in the palm of his hand.  I highly recommend him to every middle school out there looking for an author to visit!

Another view with the cutie cute sea otter in the background. 

and then there's Megan....can I just say that I have the coolest kids ever at my school?  Seriously.  Megan took off on a theme from the book--origami cranes made from McDonald's wrappers and ended up starting a real trend.  The entire 7th grade made origami cranes...including some "super-sized" versions...that's Big Mac hanging from the ceiling in the pics of Roland speaking to the crowd.  This one was dubbed Mini-Mac.  She's also (on her own) making the coolest website ever to go along with the book.  When it is completed and up and running she's said I can link it...:)

The entire school made some amazing projects and really got a lot out of I, Q. 

and boy, is my waiting list long for part 2!

Check out Roland's blog here for a nice mention of our school...
His website here...
our local paper had a really nice article about it, too, but at this point the archives cost $$ to access.  Oh well. 

Drum roll, please....

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am thrilled to announce our first One Book, One School selection: Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. Our entire school--adults and kids alike--are reading this book and will have the honor of Ben Mikaelsen visiting our school at the end of October. I want to thank the PTA for generously donating money to pay for 1/2 of the books we needed--that helped tremendously in purchasing copies for everyone. I'll have more OBOS news as time goes on....