Tag Archives: generosity

Celebration: Calef Brown Land

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This week I am thrilled to celebrate a very special visit from author/artist/poet/word-wizard/snail-inventor, the amazing Calef Brown! To say that we adore Calef Brown’s art and poems is an extreme understatement. We are ultimate fans! So much so that we have been working on creating what we have come to call Calef Brown Land: a world on our outside bulletin board that features creatures, flying machines, flora and fauna inspired by Calef’s work.

Calef’s book Dragon, Robot, Gatorbunny was the inspiration for many of these pieces Dragon, Robot, Gator Bunny Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That We started drawing . . . Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That And then we painted Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Creatures and such were cut out and collected. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That And then the building of Calef Brown Land began. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That It was admired 🙂 Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Because it is AMAZING! Full of whimsy, vibrant colours and all kinds of joyous charm. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That And then, today . . . Calef Brown, himself, was coming to visit! Books were ready (check out the top row) Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That The schedule was set. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Welcome signs were made. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That And then, we heard the shouts, “Calef Brown is here! He’s here!”

Staying in the room and calm went quickly out the window. Because today was the day! We got to visit with Calef Brown!

Sharing the mural was pretty special. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That But having Calef Brown share with us . . . Well, now, that was just full of wow! We talked about syllables and favourite words. Rhymes and near rhymes. List making. Word savouring. Rice paper. Tones. Inspiration. Silly. Colours. End papers and treasures under the book jackets. We got to ask lots of questions and found out many things like which came first – the poem? the word? the illustration? (Never the chicken or the egg in case you were wondering)

We watched Calef read poems (perfectly) upside down. And . . . recite multiple poems from memory. Most of his poems are stored in his head and he shared them with us, when the time was right, on multiple occasions. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That When the students had their recess break, Calef made each one a special note. (Yes, he really did this! I witnessed it!)

He also gifted a signed copy of his newest book Hypnotize a Tiger to our school. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That Calef got a little peek at my students doing what they do best: losing themselves in books! His books, of course, flew into hands and were shared together or devoured individually. Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That In the afternoon, students got a peek at their individual notes. Lots of smiles all around 🙂 Celebration: Calef Brown Land There's a Book for That This week I celebrate Calef Brown’s generosity, creativity and time. His visit was very special for us, confirming our knowledge that book makers – readers, writers, artists extraordinaire are magical. They make the world extra everything! Thank you Calef Brown! This was a morning for the very important memory files. Filed under . . .

wordy wanderings

art meanderings

kindly offerings

Same  number of syllables inspiration  🙂

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks. celebrate-link-up

Sophie’s Masterpiece

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Sophie’s Masterpiece is one of the most beautiful picture books I know to illustrate the concepts of kindness and generosity. Written by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Jane Dyer.

Poor Sophie the spider has a horrible time when she tries to find a place of her own in a boarding house. The tenants screech, swat at her and hide out on the windowsill to escape her. She moves from room to room, unwanted despite the thoughtful spinning she does for the various people she encounters: a web of curtains, a bright blue suit or a a pair of new slippers. Finally, when she must make the long and tiring ascent to the third floor in search of a place to be safe, Sophie is much older and very weary. She finds herself sharing a room with a young woman who does not despise her but smiles at her. When the woman has a baby, Sophie gifts the child with a blanket with strands of moonlight, starlight, wisps of night and old lullabies woven into it. So beautiful, a gift of love. Sophie weaves her heart into the farthest corner and is no more. Her last weaving, her masterpiece is such a beautiful act of kindness.

“Look how she was to people,” remarked Shae-Lynn. “After all of that hitting and screeching, she gave her own heart to be kind.”

Some new aspect of kindness for us to consider. Kindness can continue to be given even when so little seems to be received in return. The act of giving brings its own rewards.

After our discussion we spent some time appreciating, Jane Dyer’s art. Wasn’t it clever to make Sophie the spider look part human? It helped us feel extra connected as we witnessed Sophie’s kind acts and selfless giving.  We started talking about other half and half creatures. Not part spider/part human but part spider/part bird or part elephant, part robot, etc. Our afternoon art illustrates how we explored that concept.

Shae-Lynn draws her spider/cat balanced in its web.

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Markus created “Super Horse” (notice the S.H. initials) part spider/part horse with a fiery tail!

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Jacky made a part eagle/part spider creature. Gorgeous!

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Catriona made a part lion/part spider and explained that “really being part spider would be helpful to the lion for when it is catching its prey!”

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