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4th and 5th grade students had the opportunity today to meet (virtually) author Tom Rogers - author of our current novel study 'Eleven.' 'Eleven' is a historical fiction novel about a boy, Alex, who turns 11 on 9/11/2001. It is a story about bullies and heroes. About tragedy and hope. About enemies with two legs and friends with four, and pesky little sisters and cranky old men, and an unexpected lesson in kindness delivered with a slice of pizza. (-Goodreads) 

Tom Rogers provided insight to his childhood, his career and what his inspiration was for this novel. He gave our students great advice about the writing process - start small and don't be upset about having to revise our work. He even showed us pages from 'Eleven' that had been edited and told us his book went from 280 pages to 190 because of all the editing he needed to do! Students really appreciated his advice!

We wrapped up with a Q & A session - students asked Tom questions and he answered and turned the questions back to them so they had to answer also! Our 4th and 5th grade students really loved meeting a famous author, hearing his words of wisdom and learning about his inspiration behind the story we are reading. Thank you to Tom Rogers for waking up early (he lives in CA) and providing us with this very special experience!!
 

After watching a 9/11 webinar last week, Mrs. Westervelt's Wonders were given opportunities to reflect on the stories they heard. 4th and 5th grade students answered discussion questions, wrote down their own personal thoughts from the video, defined words that were unfamiliar to them related to the attacks of 9/11, defined 'hope' and 'resilience' and created leaves for our own classroom 'Survivor Tree' with messages of hope to survivors of 9/11. Upon the completion of our "Survivor Tree' (which was inspired by 'The Survivor Tree' at Ground Zero), we decided by writing our messages of hope we are living like our patron saint - St. Therese. "Do small things with great love." The heart, emotion and reflection that our students showed through this project is beyond incredible! To my Wonders - you should be so proud of yourself and know that I, your parents, family, classmates, other students, staff, school website visitors and your community are so very proud of you too! 
The video below is private and is only viewable to those who have the link here. I hope you enjoy it! -Mrs. Westervelt