Author, Tom Watson, Comes To Van Meter With Stick Dog and Stick Cat!

On March 3, we had a very special morning at Van Meter Elementary, 

when author and illustrator, Tom Watson, came for a visit.  

As shared on Tom's website, he is the author and draws the original sketches for all the Stick Dog stories.  You can read more about Tom and his characters here. 

He was also celebrating the book birthday of his new series, Trouble at Table 5.  You can read more about this series here.  

As he got ready for the presentation, he asked a few of our kindergarteners to...

 ...help hang up all of the book covers in the front.

 From the very beginning, Tom had all of our students in TK-5th grade completely engaged as he..

...talked about...

 ...his family, books and

 ...life as an author.

 Shortly into his presentation, he had all of the kids grab the drawing materials they brought and...

 ...instructed them on how to draw Stick Dog and Stick Cat.

 

It was so much fun watching them draw the characters with Tom out of the books they love. 

 

 

 

 

And one of the best parts, when he had all of them hold up their drawings so he could take a picture of all of them. 

They left inspired, engaged and ready to draw more dogs and cats of their own. 

 

When Tom finished, we went out to the East Dining Hall, so he could sign books for our kids. 

 They loved watching him draw in every one of their books and loved...

 ...joking around with Tom too.

As you can see, they were very happy to get a little time with Tom and can't wait to read the books they got. 

 

Even Mrs. Hockenberry had her picture taken with Tom. 

Thank you Tom and Barnes & Noble for the amazing day!  We really love that you came to spend time with us at our school and hope to see you again.