Oh What a Day at Franklin Hill Elementary School!

I have TOO MUCH to tell you about my visit yesterday to Franklin Hill Elementary School in Repentigny. So get ready for a fun read!

I'll start with the first creature I met when I walked into the school: Franklin the turtle. (You may know Paulette Bourgeois's Franklin the Turtle books, or the animated series which the books inspired.) Believe it or not, I was sitting in the office for about five minutes before I realized there was a turtle next to me! Check him out in today's pic! (More on Franklin later.)

Also with me in the pic is teacher Miss Linda, who invited me to Franklin Hill to work with her two Grade Five English classes. Those students were fun -- and also super well-behaved. Usually, I have to act tough when I start my workshops -- I tell the students they need to pay attention, and at least pretend to be focused! But there was no need to act tough with these kids! 

The first group told me the fascinating story of Franklin. It turns out he used to share his aquarium with a fish. Unfortunately the fish died. Because part of my workshop included a discussion about the importance of doing research (usually required for both non-fiction and fiction writing), I asked the class some questions about the deceased fish. How old was he? Was he ill? Do turtles eat the kind of fish who was Franklin's aquarium-mate? Answering these questions requires some research, but you may see where I was going -- to the story of Franklin and the unfortunate fish! As I told the students, STORIES ARE EVERYWHERE and IT'S THEIR JOB TO FIND THEM!

Also, in fiction-writing, research is often accompanied by one of my favourite questions, WHAT IF?! What if Franklin and his aquarium-mate did not get along? What if the fish ate Franklin's food? Or what if the fish didn't clean up after breakfast? I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to think this Franklin would make an interesting character for a book!

There was time for both classes to do a writing exercise -- and for me to take a peek at what they came up with. The first group wrote about their memories of being five years old. Félix-Antoine wrote, "I remember when my brother hit me with a Pokemon ball," which makes a dramatic start to a story. (Félix-Antoine also had a zillion -- well, nearly a zillion! -- questions for me!) Rafael wrote: "I kind of saw my school picture from when I was in kindergarten." Then Rafael added that the old class pictures are displayed on the school's first floor, "I pass the picture when I go to lunch." Ah ha, I thought, this could make a cool story about a kid in Grade Five who confronts his younger self and perhaps makes some important discoveries! Romy wrote something that showed me she has a poetic sensibility: "The wind was cold, the trees were covered in snow." Romy's sentence is simple, but evocative. She takes the reader into her memory! And Jayden also wrote something I loved, "I did not drop one watery tear." Don't you just love how he used the adjective watery there?

The first class was super lively. The second class was super focused! (I loved both!) When I talked about the importance of reading (it's a great way to improve our writing!) Lucas and Natanael showed me the mangas they are reading. Lucas is reading My Hero Academy by Kohei Horikoshi ("for the eleventh time!" Lucas told me) and Natanael is reading Koyoharu Gotouge's Demon Slayer (for the tenth time). 

There was a recess break during the second class (that's when Miss Linda and I went to pose with Franklin), and when we got back, a student named Matteo was surprised to see me. "Yay!" Matteo said, "we don't have to have to continue our math test!!"

I was pleased to learn I am more fun than a math test!!!

I don't know how we got to talking about this next subject, but Matteo told me, "My nanna and my gramma say if someone bothers me they'll bring the wooden spoon!" Matteo, if you don't write about your nanna and gramma and how much they love you, and their wooden spoon, well, I'll have to write about it!

This class wrote about a treasured object. Since this blog entry is getting kind of long, I'll only quote one excerpt. It comes from Natanael (one of the manga readers). Natanael wrote about his stuffed monkey: "To me he is human and I sleep with him.... In the future if I am a writer I would keep him with me on my desk." 

Oh that made me happy! In fact, all the students I met yesterday -- and Miss Linda and also Mr. Daniel, the resource teacher replacing Miss Ria -- made me happy! I told the students how my Grade Five teacher Mrs. Browman was the first person to tell me, "You're a writer." And those words changed my life! Maybe that's why I enjoy working with Grade Fives so much. And something tells me there were many writers in the room with us yesterday! 

Thanks to all the kids for being wonderful, thanks to Miss Linda for the invite, and to Miss Linda and Mr. Daniel for sharing your students with me!