Planning an Author Visit: Todd Parr

Our school has the blessing of having author/illustrator Todd Parr visit our school today.  I had the opportunity to see Todd present at I Teach 1st this summer, and I really wanted my kiddos to meet him.  Thanks to the generosity of our local library and a contribution from our school as well, it became a reality today.  I want to share some of the things we did to get ready for this visit.  I'll be back to share about the visit soon.

This visit was all about the kids, and I wanted that reflected in the things we displayed and did in preparation for the visit.  My kiddos created a welcome banner to hang in our school's atrium.  In Todd Parr's style, they painted a letter per "box" (page) to spell out "Welcome Todd Parr".

A preschool teacher and I teamed up with our classes to coordinate a macaroni and cheese (Todd's favorite food) drive for our local food pantry.  The kids made signs and flyers to distribute to all the classes in our building.  One of our custodians brought in an old bathtub to fill with the mac & cheese.  In the book It's Okay to be Different, Parr says "It's okay to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub."  The kids love this project!  It was fun to watch the bathtub fill on a daily basis.

When the bathtub arrived, I had each child sit in the tub with their favorite play food and pose for a picture with a shower cap on. They then used the app Balloon Stickies to add a speech bubble telling us what it is ok to eat in the bathtub.  These were hung on the wall around the bathtub.

Each class worked on some Todd Parr inspired artwork to decorate the gym where presentations would take place.

Self portraits in Todd Parr style

The Underwear Book.  This was my team's artwork.  Each child designed a pair of underwear to hang on the clothesline.

Watercolor Todd Parr-inspired faces with the kids names above them.

Bright faces

A quilt of Todd Parr drawings (from his website)

The library took care of the money related to book pre-sales.  This certainly helped me as the craziness of November has been upon me.  As the books came, I put a post-it on the front with the child's name and teacher's name. Then, on the title page, I put a second post-it with the child's name (in my best "teacher writing") for easy signing.

The night before the visit, we had a little welcome bag at his hotel.  We included some Ohio-made products: maple syrup, Udder Cream (hand cream made locally), candy from the local candy shop and an ornament created by a parent.  My kiddos designed the gift bag.

His characters are spelling O-H-I-O.

I'm excited to come back and share our visit with you.  The kids are SO excited!