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