Author/Illustrator Jason Chin Visits Orchard School
February 17, 2017
To close out our 2017 "I Love to Read & Write Week" celebrations, Orchard School students were very fortunate to be visited by nationally recognized author/illustrator, Jason Chin. Jason is the author/illustrator of Redwoods, Coral Reefs, Island: A Story of the Galapagos, and Gravity, as well as the illustrator of several other books. (Please see Jason Chin's web site for information about these fine books.) Our time together began with a whole school morning meeting where Jason shared information about his new non-fiction picture book, Grand Canyon.
Jason shared the illustrations of the beautiful book as he related facts pertaining to the history of this amazing US landmark. Also interesting were the sketches that Jason took while on a trip to research the Grand Canyon. He told us stories about events that occurred during the trip, too.
A favorite part of the presentation was when Jason Chin shared how an Orchard School fifth grader assisted him with some of his illustrations by modeling some poses while he sketched. |
Following morning meeting, Jason Chin met with grade level groups to talk about his other non-fiction picture books. His main focus would be on Redwoods, Coral Reefs and Island: A Story of the Galapagos. For Redwoods, Jason shared how he first learned about redwood trees through an article that he read while riding on a New York City subway. He then traveled to California to learn about these giant trees up close. It was interesting to hear about all of the research that is necessary when writing non-fiction picture books.
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Some of the students' favorite parts of Jason Chin's presentations included when he showed a book's "dummy," which is a rough mock-up of the picture book, created as a part of the development process, which gives an idea of what the final book might look like; seeing a picture of a redwood tree's banana slug; and the amazing picture of Jason looking incredibly small as he stands next to a giant redwood tree. (Images below.)
Jason went on to tell the students about Coral Reefs and Island: A Story of the Galapagos.
Jason shared information about some of the Galapagos Islands' interesting and unusual animals. Hover over the images to find out which animals they are.
During the last five to ten minutes of each presentation, Jason Chin chose a student from the audience for a quick sketch. Here's how they turned out:
It was so nice of Jason Chin to take some time after lunch to Skype with Andy Plemmons' students in Athens, Georgia. These enthusiastic children had thoughtful questions about Jason's Grand Canyon experiences. Below are a couple of tweets that Andy posted. Here is a link to Andy's blog post about his World Read Aloud Day experiences.