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Hello Teachers :-)
from Mary Newell DePalma!

Curriculum guides

My goal is to have your students think, and make connections to their own lives and what they are learning in school. I hope you find these guides useful as starting 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

See my Bookpage interview!

Mary's newest adventure:
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

I am a museum teacher at the Gardner Museum in Boston, MA. I am looking forward to introducing students to this fascinating museum! One of the most interesting aspects of the training has been learning about 'Visual Thinking Strategies,' which is a way to encourage visual learning and critical thinking. You can learn more about visual thinking strategies at www.vue.org

I hope to see you and your students at the Gardner Museum!
www.isgm.org

Student art: Coles School, Scotch Plains, NJ

School Visits

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

The skills students are learning in their classroom are the same ones I use to create picture books. I encourage students to use these skills to tell their own unique stories. I often compare teachers to my editor, and I talk about the process of editing :-)

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 present a powerpoint presentation. Your school will have to provide the equipment to run the presentation. Thanks!

Generally, my fees are $500 for a half-day of presentations, $1000 for a full day. I am located in Boston, MA, so travel expenses must be added if your school is located outside the Boston area. I prefer to schedule visits on Mondays or Tuesdays.

Email my school visit coordinator, Mary McDonough, for more information and/or to schedule a visit for your school!

One of my publishers, Scholastic, has a very informative website about planning an author visit: www.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/inviteanauthor.htm

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

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

Another list, from Kirsten Cappy at Curious City -- Authorvisits.com

An author directory from the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and illustrators: www.nescbwi.org/connections/

Another MA Directory is:
South Eastern MA Regional Library System Performer's Directory

Information about authors and Authors who visit schools from the Drury University School of Education:
USA Writes 4 Kids

Consider a booksigning to defray the cost of the school visit.
Contact your local independent bookseller to order books:

click to find an independent bookstore near you

Or you may order books directly from the publisher:
Publisher's contacts:
Be sure to tell them the date of the event, and have the ISBN# of the book available

Scholastic Inc.
(My Chair, The Nutcracker Doll, 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. (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 have posted some photos of trees in different seasons, and seeds, and any other interesting things I have seen on my daily walks to the Arnold Arboretum, which is right down the street from my house!

Seeds can be silly! click this link to see more.

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!

Visit my facebook page to see photos of school visits and children's art inspired by my books. It is where I post all of the latest news and events!

Mary Newell DePalma on Facebook.