My visit to Pickering Valley Elementary!

The first thing I noticed as I drove up to the Pickering Valley Elementary school was the fact that one could drive right under part of the building. Fascinating! I love school buildings with character -- especially when they're filled with bright, creative kids like the Pickering Valley students. Let me show you what I mean...

Take a look at this shape. What do you see? A cloud? Battling 3's? When we did this in our first assembly, I was sure each of the four kids would make it into... ... a butterfly. Well, one did. And did a lovely job, don't you think? To my great delight, one came in as this sweet, simple flower. Another turned up as this...um, well... is it a frog? Doesn't matter what it is; it's wonderful. Hooray for this one too, whatever it is. To me, it looks like a horned lizard. A happy horned lizard. And just for fun, here's mine. This is a real bee-hive hairdo! But to tell you the truth, I think I like the kids' pictures better -- and keep in mind, those were done by 2nd graders!

That's a picture of how the day went. Both assemblies ended up with stories that had the main character searching for magic things. Here's the story the older students (3-5) came up with.

It concerns a girl who's looking in a junkyard for magic dust. After many false tries, she finds it in an old sneaker. But just as she reaches for it, she's caught by the guard pooch, Fluffy, who's meaner than a junkyard dog. I think this story could be a lot of fun as we follow the girl's adventures looking in a junkyard for the magic dust.

All in all, Pickering Valley was one of the nicest school visits I've had in years -- well prepared for my visit, friendly people, and creative kids. Who could ask for more?

So remember, kids, what we did was just the start. Keep those ideas flowing. Write them down. Get together with friends and brainstorm. Being creative is so much fun!