Keli reads

Last month, Eleanor read a book by Kimberly Griffiths Little. I contacted Kimberly. I found out that she was coming here with The Compelling Reads Tour in October 2014. 

Jenna came up with the idea to ask if she would speak to Eleanor's 4th grade class. We are so lucky that she was available! 

Kimberly came and told the kids all about her house in NM. Which sounds amazing. 

She then showed the children book trailers from her middle grade books. The children were so excited and after each trailer was over the room was abuzz! 

Eleanor and her friend Karalee, plus the rest of the 4th grade class. 

Kimberly told each of the kids to imagine a lemon. A big juicy lemon and you put it on the counter and you smell it and then you get a knife and cut it in half and then you take a big bite. She asked the kids, did your mouth pucker up? 

BECAUSE THAT IS USING YOUR IMAGINATION! 

Kimberly encouraging the kids to use their imagination.

She said pretend a monkey just came in here and jumped on my head, after that it ran out that door!!! ..Now what did the monkey look like. The kids were coming up with all sorts of things. She asked if the kids that came up with brown or black monkeys were using their imagination as much as the kids that came up with neon green monkeys wearing sunglasses or the kid that said he wanted his monkey was mango colored with a tinge of watermelon. One kid said no. 

Kimberly said "yes they were" because "there was never a monkey in the room" 

All the kids had a clipboard and a pencil and she said imagine you are walking all alone. You are walking alone.Where are you walking?  She gave them ideas for prompts. Then She said imagine something happens! What is it ? What happened? write about that! 

 kids writing their stories.

 another kid writing her story.

 One of the kids showed me his story. His name was Matthew. 

I sure do hope he killed that zombie! 

 Kimberly called two kids up one boy and one girl to tell us their stories. She then encouraged them to continue them later.

What an absolute delight! How blessed we were to have Kimberly come and do this for Eleanor's class. 

Jenna and I then took Kimberly out to lunch at a place in Reston called Cafe Sano. Eleanor got to come too. 

 When we got back to the school, Jenna took this picture of Kimberly and Eleanor.

What a wonderful day!