On Tuesday October 23, 2012, author Helen Lester visited Conant presenting to grades K, 1, 2, and 3. She told the children about her own experiences learning to write, explained about the process involved in writing a book, and taught them the “flap waddle dance”! The students surprised her by singing a Tacky the Penguin song they had learned in music class. These are some comments about the program from our first and second grade students. All agreed that, to paraphrase Helen, “Tacky really is an odd bird, but he is good to have around.”
“She used to write all her letters backwards when she was little so it made it very hard for her to read. And now she WRITES books!”
“I want to be an author when I grow up!”
“I loved the part where she wrote backwards!”
“Mrs. Lester practiced a ton to write books!”
“I can’t wait for Tacky’s Birdday to come out!”
“I like the Tacky books because Tacky always saves the day or is the hero!”
“She showed us her dancing Tacky who danced on her miniature dance floor!”
“It was really funny when Tacky sang ‘How many toes does a fish have’ because fish don’t even have toes!”
“When I’m bored I write just like Mrs. Lester then I’m not bored anymore!”
“She even taught us the Tacky dance from her new Tacky book. We sang ‘Anyone can be a star!’”
“We loved singing the Tacky Song in front of the person who MADE UP Tacky!”
And from two students new to Conant “It was so much fun seeing a real book author for the very first time!”