We have been very fortunate this week to have Charlotte Agell, author of several children's books, with us in our classrooms. Some of Charlotte's books include: "Dancing Feet," "To the Island," "I slide Into the White of Winter," and "I Wear Long Green Hair in the Spring." She has spent up to 90 minutes each day in each of the three fifth grade classrooms. This opportunity was made possible with the generous support of the PTA and the Fine Arts Committee.

On Monday, time was spent thinking about characters and describing them so that one immediately knows who or what they are. Charlotte takes time to sketch students, adding details so that the drawing becomes a familiar face in the classroom. This use of details is stressed throughout Charlotte's entire residency at our school. Students took turns writing descriptions of classmates, taking care to add enough details so that, as the description was read, the person being described was immediately recognizable.

Tuesday was spent thinking about adding details to places, so that they could be identified immediately from the details used by the writer. Students also began thinking of their own character. Here are a few students thinking!

Wednesday, students had an opportunity to introduce their character to the rest of the class. They assumed the characteristics of their character. Each of them was asked a few questions by Charlotte to help clarify and add detail to their personality. Next, students worked in pairs to interview each other's character. Questions were asked about what they had for hobbies, what they ate, and where they lived. Dislikes and preferences were included.

Maybe some day you will read about one of these new characters. 

On Thursday the pairs of characters shared the results of their interviews with the class, at a tea party. Animal crackers were served. the next activity was designed to express emotions by creating a picture with words. For example, we might write "tears poured from her eyes" rather than say "She was sad."

On Friday, we each had a picture from when we were younger. These were exchanged and we tried to write a story from the picture we were given. We were encouraged to use our imagination and to add details. We could think of situations which could contribute to the circumstances surrounding the picture.

This has been a wonderful week. We have used a variety of writing techniques that we should be able to practice over the next few months until we meet with Charlotte for another week in March.

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