WILTON – It’s spring and poetry is in the air at Cushing School.
On this bright morning, Tonnie Condon’s first- and second-grade poets have just completed a collaboration to create a stunning work titled “Bugsy’s Bugs.” Bees, ants, beetles, mayflies, dragonflies and even a water bug are among the critters the young writers came up with and used in rhyme for their list poem masterpiece.
Clapping in time to each word’s syllable quickly lead to a new word song featuring bugs and smiles.
The writing session was lead by children’s book author Wendy Ulmer of Arrowsic, Maine, who knows a thing or two about words, rhyming and having fun doing both. Ulmer spent the day with the school’s kindergarten through second-grade classes talking about how she created her books, “A Campfire for Cowboy Billy,” published in 1997 and “A Isn’t for Fox,” published last year. Her latest release won Learning Magazine’s Teachers’ Choice Award.
Currently, the English and music teacher who taught Bath’s ninth-grade students for 21 years, is working on a third children’s book, “Counting to None.” In between her writing work she visits schools, bringing a message that writing is for everyone.
“I love words,” Ulmer said after Condon’s class left the library for lunch. “I want them to love words too. Reading is so important.”
In writing, she told the students of the long, book-publishing process that has taken her from contract to finished book in 18 months to more than two years for her second book.
When she mentioned that she was given a $6,000 advance to write her book, the young students were impressed and responded with, “Wow!” But when Ulmer said she had to pay back the $6,000 through sales of the book, the class gave a unified and sympathetic, “Ahhh.”
“It’s fun to write a book but it’s not going to put food on the table,” she told them.
The author also showed the students her books’ rough drafts all marked up with changes to her work the book’s editor wanted to make. It’s important not to get down about changes the editor or a teacher of yours want to make. In the end, she said, the work will be better and you learn something along the way.
“When you get your paper back, don’t be mad or sad, but be glad,” the author poet said. “Life is all about correcting mistakes and making changes.”
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Children’s book author Wendy Ulmer of Arrowsic, Maine, creates a poem with the first- and second-grade students in Tonnie Condon’s class at Cushing School in Wilton. |
