Author Visit: Tyler Whitesides!

Today was a very exciting day at Long.  The 4th and 5th graders got to hear from a famous author, Tyler Whitesides!  We got to hear about how Tyler created his Janitor series.  Check out the pictures below to see what we learned!

In writing, we have been gathering ideas for our realistic fiction unit.  Tyler shared how he finds his writing ideas!  We learned that we can take ordinary objects, places, and moments and turn them into EXTRAordinary story ideas!

Tyler got the idea for his Janitor series because he used to be a janitor!  In the picture below, Tyler took some ordinary cleaning supplies and gave them extraordinary powers!  We were lucky enough to have one of our classmates demonstrate one of these cleaning supplies.  Great job, Katherine!

Next, Tyler told us about some of his characters.  Again, we could relate to this because we worked hard on developing our own characters in our realistic fiction stories.  Tyler shared that one of his characters is a garbologist, which of course is someone who studies the garbage.  Tyler even visited a real garbage dump to learn more about the subject!  What was even cooler was that Tyler shared some of his dialogue with us, and we just wrote our own dialogue this week!  It was awesome to hear example dialogue from a real author!  

At the end of the program, Tyler kept us entertained!  He played the garbage cans (yes, the garbage cans) as drums for us!  He also cited a Shel Silverstein poem about taking out the trash, using different popular voices.  Hm... I wonder what his theme was today?  : )   Check out some of the voices he used below!

This author visit was definitely a treat for us!  We learned so much about writing, and had a lot of fun with Tyler Whitesides.  Each student received a Janitors bookmark today!  Students are also bringing home information for Tyler's book signing at the Fenton Barnes & Noble @ 6:30 tonight!  Students can go to get a free, autographed poster like the one Katherine is holding below.  Tyler will also be selling the 3 books that he has written in this new fantasy series.  

If you would like more information on Tyler Whitesides or his series, you can visit his website here!

Students, did you have a favorite part of the author visit?  If so, share your comment below!