with Bruce Van Patter 2003-2004 School Visits

My visit to Lyter Elementary!

What great fun it is to be in a school for two days. Being in a school as friendly as this one was simply wonderful. Here I am...

I was so tickled to see my old pal Max Bonker just hanging out in the gym. You know, he's looking mighty young to be a world traveler!

Shhhh! Creative Kids At Work!
In the assemblies, I had teams of creative kids like these come up and help me. They made amazing drawings out of doodles. And they gave me interesting parts to make a story out of. The parts that went into the picture below were: a horse in the jungle trying to find treasure with his chihuahua friend but running into a ninja monkey!
The other drawing I forgot to take a picture of. Maybe soon I'll post that one too.

Here are some other pictures from the two days.

The Wheel of Fiction spins, kids create amazing stories, and I make goofy faces. That pretty much sums up how the sessions work.
Then, wow! -- what an ending to our time together -- students lined up on the stage and spelled out my name in big letters while saying nice things about me using the letter to start. I captured it on digital video, but I don't know yet how to get it out of the camera! (Learning never stops, does it Mr. Rush?)

All in all, Lyter students and teachers, I have to say that my time with you was sweet! (Oh, the desserts!) I hope you all had as much fun as I did.

Remember, kids, you are creative. You have amazing stories inside you, and the more you try new things, the more you'll have stories to write. Keep using your imaginations!

And I think you're wonderful, too.

Stories from the minds of Lyter students!
Oh no! Someone has stolen the magic ice cream, which turns ordinary people into pigs!
Speaking of pigs, here's one that tries to sneak into school one day. His t-shirt made his disguise perfect, it says, "I am NOT a pig!"
This poor guy has a sleeping spell put on him by a wizard -- not just any wizard, but a mountain hermit wizard!
You have to feel sorry for this elephant. His precious bag of peanuts is being stolen by a gang of mice!
More mice? You bet. This girl is afraid of them and wants to win a screaming contest, but someone is switching her wild ones with tame, dancing ones! Who's afraid of dancing mice?
This young man tries to help a tiny alien who has crash-landed his space ship in the fur of the guy's dog!
While we're on dogs, here's one who specializes in chasing out pests from people's houses. And no, this is not upside down. This is a wizard's house where everything is upside-down, including the flying pig!
This poor kid wants to impress a girl in school, but only has the minutes between classes to do it! Apparently, the school doesn't allow candy.
And the last workshop came up with a poor duck who wants to fly, but first he has to help an alien get his ship out of the mud. Stuck in the muck? You're in luck, here's the duck!
My thanks to all who gave me drawings during the two days. Here's a sample, given to me by a great kid named Zach.
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Pick the ingredients to stories and click through to see how I've started them. Then you finish the story!

Make a character out of some funny people I've drawn for you!
 Here are actual drawings I've done in schools. Use them to write your own story!
click on the images to go to the writing activities