This is an experience that will get children thinking deeply while practicing their own storytelling through writing and illustration.

Jo-Ellen will share and read the book, “The Important Book,” by Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret Wise Brown is the New York Times bestselling author Goodnight Moon _and _Runaway Bunny, and in this story she prompts children to think about the importance of everyday objects like apples and spoons. Why do those things matter? Do they help us to eat? What's important about the wind and the rain?

In this experience, curious kids will observe and notice important details about their everyday surroundings. Kids will practice reading and writing and choose their own everyday objects to opine bout. Together with Jo-Ellen and each other, they'll work on following the format laid out in "The Important Book," and using great imagery in their storytelling. Once finished, kids will illustrate their own stories as a final project.

The 4 Hour experience will incorporate Kenneth Koch's poem, "Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?" Jo-Ellen guides kids to write a variety of poetry forms and put them into a poetry flip book that they'll illustrate. They'll learn and review concepts like metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, and imagery; and, learn about the different types of poems like haiku, cinquains, odes, limericks, and diamanté. At the end of this experience, kids will have a completed poetry flipbook to take home.