Grundy Center Elementary Staff have created some dynamic and innovative literacy experiences for students during the past three years. Some of the best experiences involve connecting students with mentors, and today was one of those days! Author and Illustrator, LeUyen (Win) Pham delivered a fantastic mix of storytelling, lessons on writing and illustrating, humor, and enough inspiration for 275 elementary students!
Win has helped create over 100 books in her career! She has worked with authors such as Mo Willems, Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, Kelly DiPucchio, Jerry Spinelli, Jabari Asim, Phil Bildner, Anna Marie Pace, and Julianne Moore.
Kindergarten and first graders got to see a super sneak peek at Win's newest book coming out next month called, The Itchy Book, which is authored by Mo Willems. Win also gave some drawing tips and showed how real students are the inspiration for animal characters she makes in her books.
Second and third grade students heard a few chapters from the next book in the popular series, Princess in Black. Win also talked about how she brought her sketch book on world travels, including a very interesting (and somewhat terrifying) trip off the beaten path in an African jungle!
Fourth grade students learned about Win's world travels and the importance of sketching every single day in order to improve your craft. They also were given the privilege of learning about the book Real Friends by Shannon Hale and were shown how to create graphic novel stories with three panel starts.
Win autographed and drew pictures in over 100 books for students, toured the school to see what projects each grade had created inspired by her books, and visited every single classroom for some PICTURE TIME!
Experiences like these are funded through our elementary fundraising efforts each fall. If ever there were a good example of how much we appreciate our community support, this is it! A special thank you to Greenbelt Bank in Grundy Center for providing each student with a strawberry parfait at lunch to go along with Win's illustrated book series, Freckleface Strawberry.
Win spoke very highly of our students and school mentioning she has traveled all over the country and never been to a school that welcomes an author, makes them feel so special, and gets students involved in the author's books as much as G.C. Elementary! Great job, Grundy Center Elementary students and staff!
Win spoke very highly of our students and school mentioning she has traveled all over the country and never been to a school that welcomes an author, makes them feel so special, and gets students involved in the author's books as much as G.C. Elementary! Great job, Grundy Center Elementary students and staff!