Thursday, March 31, 2011

Where the Mountain Meets the School

When schools ask me do to my "Behind Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Presentation," I always make sure they read the curriculum guidelines. That is because it is a presentation that can go extremely well or...not. It's a presentation that needs the students to have actually read (or heard) the book. The better the students know the book, the better the presentation goes.

Which is why I was filled with great joy during one of my school visits in Arizona. Not only had the students of Zaharis School been read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, each class did a project on it.

In one of the younger classes, the students answered what they, themselves, would as the Old Man of the Moon:
And another class did an-depth study of the book and created this lovely board:
(It says"We are all puddles awaiting the rain of characters that create ripples which expands our boundaries until we become oceans")

character names are on the raindrops!

and the ocean is made of story line "ripples"

An older class wrote stories about meeting different characters from the book:

While another class wrote about their favorite part and what they learned from the book (I love the accompanying drawings!):
And other classes wrote poetry:


With all this preparation, the presentation went amazingly well and I was so thrilled how much my book was enjoyed. I'm hopeful that this will inspire other schools that request the "Behind Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" presentation.
Thank you, Zaharis School!