SLJ's webcast with Andy Griffiths

All semester I have promised my third graders and third grade teachers that I would invite them to an author event in the library. So, when I heard about SLJ's webcast with Andy Griffiths this week, I immediately thought of them and invited them to view it with me! I had heard Andy at the 2013 TLA Conference on an author panel, and knew his humor and style of storytelling would be perfect for our third graders! 

Unfortunately in my haste and excitement I miscalculated the time difference, and just as I was pulling it up, the webcast finished! (It wouldn't have mattered if I had known the correct time because they were in their Specials classes during the time of the event.) So, I did what any good teacher does and I took a step back and punted!

I had added a few websites about Andy to my Symbaloo page, so first I shared these websites with them:


http://andygriffiths.com.au/



http://www.slj.com/2014/04/authors-illustrators/interviews/qa-author-andy-griffiths-on-his-ever-growing-treehouse-series/#_

And watched these YouTube book trailer videos:







And then we let the students get into groups of 4 or 5 to design their own treehouse room:

Here are some of their finished ideas:

Super-Duper Bowling Alley

 Boot Camp Room

 Log Ride out of the treehouse

 Pet Shop Room

 Dance Studio Room

 Take your pick: fishing, laser tag, sport fields, or a pool!

 Zero gravity room

 Base-ketBall field: a mash-up of baseball and basketball

 Mall/shopping room

 Bouncy House room

 Snack Room

Their favorite room was the Tarantula Room!

After sharing out a few of their ideas, we looked at Mr. Schu's blog post about Andy Griffiths' visit to his school on Tuesday. It was a perfect way to end our time together, and made us look forward to next week when we can watch the archived recording of today's webcast together.