Ask them about dinosaurs

Want to get a rise out of Gordon’s youngest students?

 

Ask them about dinosaurs.
 

Deborah Freedman is the author and illustrator of nine picture books. 
 

She shared one of them, Tiny Dino, with Gordon’s Preschool, Young Kindergarten, Kindergarten and first grade students today. 
 

She had their full attention.
 

The conversation veered wildly between topics in prehistoric geology, fossil formation, comparative anatomy and evolutionary biology.
 

They also covered the difference between an author and an illustrator, and between a book’s cover, the dustcover, and the endpapers.
 

For her drawing demonstration, she drew in a finger puppet hummingbird as a helper.

 

The students could barely contain themselves.
 

For a finale, she had them describe an imaginary dinosaur as she drew it.
 

“Big tail or little tail? Big head or little head? Big teeth or little teeth?”
 

Everything was big. That went over well, and this dinosaur also wears bow ties and hats.
 

Stubbornly committed to the science of the lesson, Ms. Freedman reminded them that a new dinosaur’s discoverer has the privilege of naming it.
 

Here, then, we have: the first known Gordonlibrasaurus, as discovered today.

 

2022 Book Fair was busy

The story above was just one of dozens of special events happening around Gordon's 2022 Book Fair. 

Here are a few more:

Thursday author Karina Yan Glaser with second and third grade

Wednesday celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Joukowsky Family Library
Wednesday authors and publishers Cheryl and Wade Hudson with second grade
Wednesday author and illustrator Danielle Greendeer with third grade
Wednesday author and illustrator Christopher Denise with first grade

Tuesday author Anika Aldamuy Denise with first, second and fourth grade

Last week author Supriya Kelkar with second and third grade

Note! Guests met with many different grades in a number of workshops. The visits documented above were simply the ones Mr. Griffin happened to catch.