Untitled Document

School Visits

My school visits encourage students to be active participants—as writers, as illustrators, as readers and viewers.

The process of writing and illustrating is one of recognizing an interest, exploration, gathering and organizing information, and finding a way to communicate one’s enthusiasm in words and pictures. Students learn that the skills they are learning in their classroom are the same ones I use to create picture books, and that they can use these skills to tell their own unique stories.

My goal is to empower students to do the things that they dream of doing.

I consider the books that I write to be springboard books—that is, they are good places to begin a discussion. “How does this happen?” ”What are they doing?” “What else do we know about this?” “What do the illustrations tell us that is not in the text?” etc. So, I try to get the students to notice and analyze the story as we go through it and sometimes those connections lead to discussions of related topics. Making connections is important for artists and writers, and an interesting way to learn.

Presentations can be customized to suit your curriculum preferences.Click on these links for a description of my presentations:

Pre-school and Kindergarten

Elementary School

High School, College, Adult: any or all of the above topics in more detail, also how I got started working as an artist/writer.

Usually I speak to small groups, so I bring visual aids that are appropriate to a classroom-size setting. Please let me know if I will be speaking to an auditorium-sized crowd and I will bring a powerpoint presentation. Your school will have to provide the equipment to run the presentation. Thanks!

Generally, my fees are $250 for a half-day of presentations, $500 for a full day. I am located in Boston, MA, so travel expenses must be included if your school is located outside the Boston area.

Hello Teachers :-) from Mary Newell DePalma!

	Curriculum guides are available for some of my books. My goal is to have your students think about the stories and make connections to their own lives and what they are learning in school. I hope you find them useful as 'jumping off' places for classroom activities/discussions. Click the book title to see the guides for: A Grand Old Tree My Chair The Nutcracker Doll Rembrandt's Hat Roads The Strange Egg		Free Book! Really! No strings attached! I wrote a fun read-aloud story titled "Raspberries!" and it appears in Rhinos & Raspberries, Stories and Activities for Young Peacemakers. This book is published and distributed to schools FREE by Teaching Tolerance. Learn more about Teaching Tolerance and download the order form for the book at www.teachingtolerance.org
	School Visits My school visits encourage students to be active participants—as writers, as illustrators, as readers and viewers. The process of writing and illustrating is one of recognizing an interest, exploration, gathering and organizing information, and finding a way to communicate one’s enthusiasm in words and pictures. Students learn that the skills they are learning in their classroom are the same ones I use to create picture books, and that they can use these skills to tell their own unique stories. My goal is to empower students to do the things that they dream of doing. I consider the books that I write to be springboard books—that is, they are good places to begin a discussion. “How does this happen?” ”What are they doing?” “What else do we know about this?” “What do the illustrations tell us that is not in the text?” etc. So, I try to get the students to notice and analyze the story as we go through it and sometimes those connections lead to discussions of related topics. Making connections is important for artists and writers, and an interesting way to learn. Presentations can be customized to suit your curriculum preferences.Click on these links for a description of my presentations: Pre-school and Kindergarten Elementary School High School, College, Adult: any or all of the above topics in more detail, also how I got started working as an artist/writer. Usually I speak to small groups, so I bring visual aids that are appropriate to a classroom-size setting. Please let me know if I will be speaking to an auditorium-sized crowd and I will bring a powerpoint presentation. Your school will have to provide the equipment to run the presentation. Thanks! Generally, my fees are $250 for a half-day of presentations, $500 for a full day. I am located in Boston, MA, so travel expenses must be included if your school is located outside the Boston area. Email me: mary@marynewelldepalma.com for more information and/or to schedule a visit for your school!
					Will your students be taking a field trip to see The Nutcracker ballet? Think about scheduling a school visit before the performance so that we can talk about students their age who perform in the ballet! This is the subject of my book The Nutcracker Doll.
			Activities Paper Doll Activity Sheet (best printed on stiff paper). A ballerina with various costumes. Design some costumes yourself! I have a friend who designs costumes. Hear Ken Busbin speak about his work and see some of the costumes he designed at www.amarillo.com/nutcracker Hey, everyone loves snowdays! Click the picture below and after the introduction, you can create your own snowflake! It is fun :-) How's your vocabulary?? Try this: www.freerice.com

	Consider a booksigning to defray the cost of the school visit. Order books ahead of time and save time for me to sign them. Publisher's contacts for ordering books for booksignings: Be sure to tell them the date of the event, and it helps to have the ISBN# of the book available Scholastic Inc. (My Chair and A Grand Old Tree) Meaghan Hilton/mehilton@scholastic.com/212-389-3080 Houghton-Mifflin (The Strange Egg) 1-800-225-3362 Henry Holt Inc. (Knock! Knock! and Estelle Takes a Bath) Will Gruen/will.gruen@hbpub.com/1-800-221-7945 x573 HarperCollins (The Squeaky Door) 1-800-233-4725 Eerdman's (Now it is Winter) Kathryn Curneal/publicity@eerdmans.com/1-800-253-7521 x319
				Because I like trees so much, I will be posting some photos of trees in different seasons, and seeds, and any other interesting things I see on my daily walks to the Arnold Arboretum, which is right down the street from my house! Here is what I have so far:
			Seeds can be silly! click this link to see more.
	Find an Author Find an author in your state who visits schools. I'm in Massachusetts. Kim Norman has made a list of authors who visit schools, by state: authorvisitsbystate.com And here's another list, from Kirsten Cappy at Curious City -- Authorvisits.com A local Massachusetts author directory from the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and illustrators: www.nescbwi.org/connections/
			See more springtime pictures here
	In April, I saw a frog in the garden!
	I posted three pictures of trees covered with snow here. What do the snow covered trees remind you of? lace? vanilla frosting? It is sort of like looking at clouds, they have such interesting shapes!
			In February, I noticed a flock of robins in the Arboretum. This one is in a crab apple tree that still had leftover crab apples on it from last fall. See more pictures of robins here. More birds in the spring photos here!
	Now It Is Winter, by Eileen Spinelli, (illustrated by me), has been selected for the Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year 2005! More about this distinction here.	My Chair, by Betsy James, (illustrated by me), is included in the 2004 edition of Children's Books 2004, One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing, a list of books recommended by librarians at the NYPL!