Seamus' Story: In Honor of Patricia Polacco

The following is a story Mark narrated to me, inspired by Patricia Polacco's stories about true events in her life--even sad events.

The previous post is Gracie's story with an explaination of this wonderful "Author Fiesta" idea.

Seamus

When my dog Seamus died, I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore.

It happened last year.

I loved him even though he bit my arm. Even though he gave me a scar on my arm that will probably last my whole life.

I know Seamus loved me because he liked to play with me, and I liked to play with him. We liked to throw his bone and squeaky toy outside and he would hide with it.

I never knew it would be so much fun to have a black dog with a white paws and white between his eyes.

I miss him. I hope the new dog is just like him.

The End

Author's Note: We have a lot of fun now, but I still miss Seamus. Whenever I look at my scar, I think of him.

By Mark: 8 years old

A Family Story: In Honor of Patricia Polacco

Cay, at Author Fiesta, suggested that we have the children write a family story, to place in their binders. Today, everyone has been slowed down by a cold, so it was a perfect day to get started on the stories.

I have written their stories as they narrated them to me.

I had the kids sit for a little while quietly so that they could think about what they would like to share. (Patricia Polacco's habit is to sit in her rocking chair every morning and listen to classical music while she gets ready to write and create her artwork.)

Gracie decided to share the fun she has at Grandma and Granpa's house with her cousins.

FUN WITH MY COUSINS
I love having fun with my cousins at Grandma’s house.

We like to play with Grandma’s toys, but she won’t let us play with her fancy ones.

In the summer we like to roast marshmallows and eat a picnic outdoors. We love to ride in Grandpa’s wagon in back of the tractor. We watch the birds, take walks, and see the creek and trains.

Inside we like the sound of the birdie clock. We watch t.v. and especially like Funniest Home Videos.

The End.

Author’s Note: Even though I am getting older we still have a lot of fun together.

By Gracie age 6

I have to laugh, Mark and Grace had never heard the term "author's note" until we read the Patricia Polacco books. Both kids, seperately, told me when they finished narrating their stories, that they wanted to add an author's note to the end of their stories.

Author Fiesta-Emma Kate

The month of May is coming to a close and so is our Patricia Polacco -Author Fiesta.

We have had a great time learning all about this wonderful author.

Make sure to visit Cay, and check out all the information and printables she has made available on the Author Fiesta website. Thanks for all your hard work, Cay.

We have read almost all the books on the reading list which is now in our binder. (I saved the Christmas books for December.)

I wanted to share our current "favorite" Patricia Polacco book, and what we have included in our Author Fiesta binder about it. Emma Kate is a book I am sure we will return to again and again. It was especially a favorite of the younger group of kids around here.

We have devoted a page in our binder just for Emma Kate. We were very excited when we saw that this book was dedicated to Dr. Seuss and Horton. We are all about Seuss around here, and have been for the past several months. Mainly because of this. Gracie was especially excited to discover a picture of Horton in the Emma Kate story. (You will have to search for it if you want to see it!)

I made up a copy work sheet for Grace to do, and we added this to our binder.

We all drew imaginary friends and added these to our binders. This is Gracie's friend Marcus.

I love the Enchanted Learning website. I found this really cute elephant puppet on this site. We just printed it, colored it and then cut it out. We have had alot of fun with our puppets. I also printed out some of the others from this site and we have been enjoyinhg numerous "puppet shows."

We just can't wait for the Author Fiesta for June!

Author Fiesta-Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair

No, I didn't have problems trying to turn this picture around. Actually, it is the base of our "Triple Creek" dam. Made entirely of Patricia Polacco books. I asked the kids what they would like to do to remember this book in our Author Fiesta binder and they wanted to build a dam.
We don't think that it would stop any water, but after a 30 minute effort, we finally got it to stand up long enough to snap this photo. Mark thought is was very fitting to use Patricia Polacco's autobiography as the top!

Author Fiesta-John Philip Duck

If you have been enjoying Cay's Author Fiesta, and have read the book John Philip Duck, you will enjoy seeing the actual Peabody ducks at the Peabody hotel in Memphis. They have been marching into the fountain everyday since the 1930's.

We also listened to alot a John Philip Sousa marches on Youtube this afternoon-everyone is pretty hyper around here now.LOL