Did someone say CAKE?

Ok, so there are fairies dancing in it...

This looks like fun. I just entered it. Anyone else? The deadline approacheth!

http://www.theatre-illuminata.com/contest2.html

My Day In Kindergarten

(and First Grade too!)

My niece (A) and oldest nephew (J) have something at their school called Secret Reader. On Fridays, a surprise guest can show up and read a story to the class. My middle sister (J's mom) and I had talked about the possibility of me going it someday.

So earlier this week she e-mailed me and said "J's class is learning about fairy tales and friendship this week, and since you did that Sword & Sorceress thing I thought this might be the perfect time for you to be the Secret Reader."

Take a Friday off to spend with my family and tell stories? Sure!

So today I donned my Thinking Cap (the Flowerpot Hat from my surprise birthday party at World Fantasy in Saratoga) and off we went. But we didn't just read a fairytale. We made one.

I was wearing my "Be careful or you'll end up in my novel" T-shirt, and read it to the kids. Then we started a story where the Fairy Godmother and some young Wizards-in-Training discover that an Invisible Creature is making the Enchanted Forest disappear.

When the kids heard that the Fairy Godmother just happened to have the same name as their teacher, they gasped and giggled. When I started reading the names of the apprentice wizards, which just happened to match the class list, well...!

We cast spells, and finally "painted" the creature so that people could see it and make friends with it. Everybody got to draw a body part with a different color crayon (and the Fairy Godmother magicked in the eyes, because of course you should never poke anyone in the eye with a paintbrush!) Then they named the critter.

It went over so well we did an impromptu repeat performance for my niece's 1st grade class too. My sister took notes on all the kids' responses, so tomorrow I need to make them into Official Stories for the kids to take home.

Whew, what fun!