Author's Day

Our grade three teacher Miss Silver invited an author to visit. “Mr. Lawrence will help us with story ideas,” she said. 

“Maybe we can get published too!" Kathryn and Dustin shouted.

            Mr. Lawrence's picture was placed on their classroom door, and his short stories on the wall. Each child then taped their own best stories and drawings alongside.

            “He’s here! He’s here!” were sounds which vibrated from wall to wall when the day finally arrived. The children could hardly wait to ask a bucket full of questions.

“Okay,” Mr. Lawrence said. “Now I want all of you to march around the classroom.”
            "But…But, we like to sit at our desks," the children answered. Miss Silver seemed confused and scratched her head.

"This might help you think about new ways to do things," Mr. Lawrence said. Then he asked the whole class to sit on the floor. As he walked around the room, he spoke about why he enjoyed writing stories.

His soothing voice seemed to create a spell over the whole room. Tongues kept silent. Not even a whisper escaped. Each child’s ear opened wider than the ocean.

             Then suddenly stopped and began asking questions.

"Why do you write stories? Is it fun? At what age did you begin? Who? When? and Why?" were more like spears flying through the air.

Waving hands were more like ocean waves. 

            “I really admire your classroom decorations,” he said.

            We were happy Miss Silver suggested we do a project on animals and birds from Nova Scotia. "You should know more about your province and the outdoors,” she said.

            "This is exactly the subject I wish to talk about,” Mr. Lawrence said with a smile. Then, he invited each person to tell the class about their favourite animal or bird.

Andrea spoke about her cat, Minou. Daniel talked about a Goldfinch. Other children chatted eagerly about dogs, horses and chickadees.

            Mr. Lawrence asked everyone to close their eyes and try and imitate their sounds. Then he explained how trees made their own special noises in the forest. “Such as the way limbs creaked and poplar leaves rustled,” he said.

            "It's often the wind stirring up the forest," Mr. Lawrence added. "Now…listen to your own memories."

            Some children remembered the wind with its "Whoosh" sounds. Almost like a giant puffing mightily in the forest. "Whooshie" must have been his young child racing through the trees.

            Mr. Lawrence now asked us to pretend to be animals and birds living in the woods.

            Jody became a deer.          

            Ryan and Anthony ran around the class like rabbits. Tyler pretended to be a chasing wolf. Tyler wanted to be a moose. Marcie, Travis and Colin became ravens and owls.

            And some of the children became squirrels.

            Mr. Lawrence imitated the way loons greeted an early morning mist. “Their high-pitched sounds are almost like steps leading up to the sky,” he said.

            The he blew bubbling noises through his lips. “This means a mother deer is searching for her fawn.” 

            “And a raccoon’s "Chirrr" is a greeting to a friend!” Sasha shouted.

            Soon, animal and bird noises came from every corner of the room.

Clapping hands imitated sounds of danger. “Beavers slap their tails diving into Maple lake,” Matthew said. And he should know since his family lives near the shore.

            Miss Silver looked as if her eyeballs were going to pop. Her head kept twisting from side to side, as if watching a game of tennis.

            Children crawled around like snakes. Others were a pack of coyotes. Sam and Margaret were hunched over like raccoons, pawing at the air.

            Vida and Baxter "caw-cawed" like crows.

            Chelsea and Courtney pretended to be tall trees stretching high above everyone.

            Brendan wasn’t afraid because he knew the forest was like a friend. His dad often took him camping and canoeing.

            Of all the sounds in the classroom, “Chickadee-dee-dee” sounded more real than the rest.

            Children were having such fun standing on chairs, sitting on desks, even squirming on the floor.

            Some imagined they were rays of sunshine peeking through windows. Others acted as sprinkling rain on flowers.

            A few children became moonbeams creating a path through the silence of the night.

            Everything was awesome. 

            No longer was the classroom full of old chairs and wooden desks. No one even noticed that notepads and chalk were scattered like pillow feathers around the room.

            Even forgotten were schoolbooks laying on the floor.

            Everyone seemed to be in a make-believe forest surrounded by sky and lakes. Someone drew a narrow creek with drawings of tadpoles and water spiders. And then they added white water lilies.

Then Mr. Lawrence walked to the center of the room. Everyone stopped and listened.

            “Stories develop from memory and feelings, then come alive through imagination,” he said. “Did you have fun?” he asked.

“The sound of “YESSS!!” from a classroom of children was deafening.

            Then he sat down.

            Miss Silver’s face lit up with a huge smile.

            As if a magic wand had been raised, everything changed. No longer was the classroom a forest with moss, trees, animals or even bird sounds.

Once again it became a room with desks and books and blackboard notes.

            Now it was Mr. Lawrence’s turn to smile.

            Everyone else did too.

            “One day, I’m going to write a story about your visit,” Melanie said for everyone to hear.