School Visit – Castlecrag Montessori – The POWEs

School visit fun 🙂

What a lovely morning I’ve just spent at the Castlecrag Montessori pre-school. Such a sweet little school.

I love how excited little children get when a visitor comes to school. They all rush up to tell you their names and their ages and some take hold of your hand and try to lead you off somewhere to show you something. So adorable!

They all seemed very interested in how they could be POWEs too which so encouraging to see.

I really enjoyed the part of the visit where I read the story to them. They were so quiet, just a sea of little open-mouthed faces waiting for what was going to happen next. You never know how you’re going to be received on a school visit. They’re always fun, but when the children seem to hang off your every word it’s particularly rewarding.

When we talked about what rhino horn and elephant tusks were made of, one little boy shouted out “plastic”. Children’s perceptions of things always interests me. It led to a really fun chat and the children were fascinated when they found out what they really made of.

To finish off, we watched a video featuring some Zambian musicians, who collaborated for EleFest in Zambia, to raise awareness about their diminishing wildlife. The video also features the elephant and rhino orphans, that the ‘Disappearing Tusks’ book is raising funds to support, as well as other African wildlife. We had great fun shouting out the names of all the animals that appeared. At the end one little boy asked me why the people in the video were so dark, and so we talked about how people from different countries can have different coloured skin. I love all the various conversations that can arise out of my author visits. It always makes it so interesting for me.

 

As I was packing up my things, one little girl ran up and hugged me and told me that she loved me. You can’t get much better praise than that for a school visit. I walked out the gate to a chorus of “goodbye Imogen” from 25 beautiful little people. A very special day indeed!

The principle of the school has given me the loveliest review. It means the absolute world to me to receive praise like this for my author visits. To be told about the positive affect I’ve had on the children by someone who knows them well.