Today my class had a visitor that came all the way from Massachusetts.(we web chatted).This was a great experience and I learned so much. One of the things I learned is how to write  Readers Theaters script. Here are some of the tenichous I learned. I learned that you need to put a line in the middle that everybody says to keep the  people that had parts in the beginning focused. I also learned that to write a good script you need to be able include mostly animals and not people because it is fun to be an animal not just a human. Also I wanted to include some of the book titles that will come out in the future. There is one book that comes out in 2013. The book is called No Monkeys No Chocolate. I think this will turn out to be hilarious book. Anyways I learned a lot of things from this author visit and I hope we can talk to again , but for right know I hope I taught you something. For right now read some books. Happy reading!

-Will

Conversation with Merissa Stewart

     Today we talked with Merissa Stewart and it was great. We got to ask her questions about her writing life. She gave us some really good answers and with lots of detials. She told us about a book that she is writing and I really want to read it and it comes out in 2013. I dot like that because i think it is going to be really funny I think it is called No Monkey, no Choclate. One of my favorite books from Merissa Stewart is Under the Rain. She even told us about a book that came out last week. Another book she told us about was her first book she ever wrote in the year 1998 that was 13 years ago and i think that is really cool. So
i was really inspired by her. She even told us that she has a lot of snow where she lives. In a book she wrote she had snow in it and i think that is really cool. Don't you? I learned so much from from her and i hope i will have yhe oppertunity again.

                                                                          Daniel T.

Author Visit from Melissa Stewart

Today in FOCUS, we had an author visit from Melissa Stewart from Skype. We asked her many questions, and she answered all of them. I learned many things. I learned that without monkeys, we would have no chocolate. I wouldn't care because I don't like chocolate. Monkeys, and other animals, eat the cocoa and make it grow. If they didn't eat it, or if they weren't there, no chocolate. She told us that she is making a book, called No Monkeys, No Chocolate. It talks about if there were no monkeys, no chocolate. She will be publishing that in 2013. I can't wait! She also told us that a book varies in the time it takes to make the book. If their is an occurrence during the making in the book, it would take about 5 to 6 years. She gave us many advices that were very useful. She gave us advice about being an author and how to get resources to get notes from it. She also told how the weather is in her part of Massachusetts. Today was very fun!

Sincerely

Johaer

Conversation with Marissa Stewart

        We had so muh fun talking with Marrisa Stewart today. We got to ask her questions it was the best time of my life. How would you feel to be talking to a author? I liked her writing. The best npart is that i had alot of fun. She told us about her books. I cant wait for her menkey book to come out. It must be fun and probably funny. The new book comes out 2013 though. thats what i dont like. The best part was that she told us how she became a authort. My favorite book she wrote was Under The Snow. The only thing she never told us if she has ever wrote a chapter book. The best thing about her is that she told us where the illustrator lives. She even told us about the books that came out last week! The book When Rain Falls is hers too. Do you thing thats cool? I learned that the monkeys are the ones that get us chocolate. The rainforest animals too. When she first published a book it was 1998. thats 13 years ago! My brother was born in 1997 thats the funny part. Thats awsome right? Theres a good thing about this because i learned so much, like that squirrels have their own umbrella wich is their tail. I also learned that squirrels even have a beach umbrella( thats their tail!). I was very inspired when i saw what she knew. The questions e had she answered so greatly i couldn't believe it. 

                                                                                                    

Hamza

Mrs.Stewarts visit!

    Hello my name is Brooks and I'm going to tell you about Mrs.Melissa's visit. It was so cool! She told us about books that she made and books that she is working on. While we were n FOCUS, she visited us on the web cam. She told us about this awesome book she is working on called No Monkeys,No Chocolate. It is about how monkeys make chocolate trees by spitting out seeds in the rain forest. She also told us about how you can make books into readers theater. She gave us very useful tips on being an author and how she organizes her notes. This was a very interesting visit from Melissa Stewart!

                                                                                  Brooks

Meeting the Aurthor!

Today I met with the author for our upcoming Reader's Theater presentation, Melissa Stewart. She's the author of many books, including When Rain Falls and  Under the Snow. It was pretty amazing to talk to her. She gave us tips for making Reader's Theater sripts. We also learned somethings about how she writes her books, like it took her 5 years to make Under the Snow! She told us that she always writes about something to do with science. She intreviews with sciencetist to help her write her books. I also learned that she writes many books at the same time! She published her first book in 1998, and she wrote books for 13 years. Some of her upcoming books are No Monkeys, No Choclate! and Under the Sun. I had a great time talking to Melissa Stewart!
              
                 -Anushka

A Great Reader's Theater Expeirence

Overall, Reader's Theater has helped me a lot. It has helped me open up in a way that I could never do before! I have been doing pretty good with not being shy, but Reader's Theater has helped me in a way that I can't even explain. Standing up in front of people that I don't even know might have been oh, I don't know, REALLY scarry at first, but after I realized that it wasn't so bad I began to get comfortable doing it. Now I can't wait for the next Reader's Theater performance! Meeting the author Melissa Stewart on a video chat was a great thing to do before my focus class has to write our own Reader's Theater! She gave us some advise about turning a nonfictional piece into a fictional Reader's Theater. It doesn't sound that hard. This whole experience has just been fantastic for me! I hope other schools do Reader's Theater too because I would definitely recommend it!

- Lauren

Meeting The Author of When Rain Falls and Under The Snow!

A couple minutes ago, my whole focus class just got finish with a skype conversation with Melissa Stewart. Last week, before we did this, we sat a table, as a group of course, and we made up questions to ask her today! The questions we asked were about how she came up with the ideas of writing her type of stories, which are non-fiction. They were also about how she became an author and such. She gave us really great answers. Her answers were very well told and she helped us learn how to make a reader's theatre script out of a picture book! I know that it was fun for me because I love to write. Last year when I was in third grade, I made an 18 page story that was based on authors and how they make their stories. By talking to Melissa Stewart today, it made me want to become an author. So thank you Melissa Stewart for inspiring me to be an author!

- Maddy

Video Chat With Melissa Stewart

Today in focus we had a video chat with Melissa Stewart, the author of Under the Snow and When Rain Falls. I had a blast talking with her! We asked different questions about her life as a writer.
She also talked about what other books she had written. I am glad that she writes books for readers theater, and she enjoys it too! I think that Melissa Stewart is such a great author! I thought that me and my focus classmates were really lucky to have spoken with her.
I am also looking forward to reading her new book that will be released in 2013. I had a great time speaking with Melissa Stewart!

signed,
Carson S.

live chat with Melissa Stewart!

Today I just finished doing a video chat with an author. I learned that monkeys have a big part in chocolate by spitting cocoa seeds on the ground, creating more cocoa trees. That information will be in her upcoming book, No Monkeys No Chocolate coming in 2013. She got her inspiration for our reader's theater book when she was hiking and she saw salamanders swimming under the frozen pond. I hope that other teachers are inspired by this. Maybe they'll try to do it? I know that if I was a teacher, I would absolutely try to do this. She is such an amazing author. She might inspire me to be an author because she is a role model.

-Sadie M.

Melissa Stewart!

Today we video chatted with Melissa Stewart! It was so interesting when she told us about the book that she is working on called No Monkeys , No Chocolate. Also it was cool when she said she saw the salamanders swimming under a pond. When I heard that she got her inspiration from hiking it got me thinking of how many cool experiences she had when she saw that. Another thing that intrigued me was when she talked about the one teacher that helped her become a writer. She is a real role model for people who want to achieve something like I want to be a artist when I grow up.

-Maria

Chatting With Melissa Stewart

Today the FOCUS students and I had a live video chat with the author, Melissa Stewart.
We asked some questions about advice, organizing, and questions about her life.
It was actually pretty fun talking with an author.
I learned a lot of things, and so did the other students and Mrs.Schmidt and Mrs. Zawacki.

I learned how to organize all my ideas when writing a story. And I also learned that monkeys help make the chocolate we eat. They help by getting the cocoa seeds, eating the pulp inside the cocoa, and then spitting the seeds onto the ground. How do I know that? Well, I learned it because Melissa Stewart told us about the next book she was going to write about. It's called No Monkeys, No Chocolate. It will be coming out in 2013.

We asked Melissa Stewart this question in the middle of the chat. How do you come up with the dialogue when writing a script in Reader's Theater? She said that she just uses her imagination.

When she said that, I learned that I should use my imagination all the time when I write a story.

It was great meeting Melissa Stewart and getting to know her. I learned a lot from her.

- DaSeul K.

Melissa Stewart Experience

Today, we did a video chat with Melissa Stewart. It was awesome. We learned things about being an author, making Reader's Theater, and advice about researching. She told us about an upcoming book she is writing called No Monkeys, No Chocolate. I am really looking forward to reading it in 2013. We learned that monkeys take cocoa pods and break them open to eat the pulp. Then, they spit out the seeds and the seeds make new cocoa trees. Without the monkeys we would have no cocoa seeds to make delicious chocolate. When we were talking to the author we had a lot of good questions. We had a great time.
-Matt