Are you looking for a new children's book to read to your students during the
first week of school? A book to make them feel positive about coming back to
school? A book to make them feel like a valued member of the school community?
Children's author and illustrator Kelley Donner published her children's book
School is More Than a Building in May and it would be an excellent read
for that first week. In this blog post, Kelley Donner writes about her new
book, where the inspiration for the book came from, and the resources you can
download to go with it. Keep reading to learn more about
School is More Than a Building!
Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.
This is a guest post written by Kelley Donner. To learn more about guest
posts, please visit the
Authors, Publishers, and Sponsors
page.
Guest Post by Kelley Donner
This past year was anything but ordinary. I have three boys and we went from being in school to home school and back again a few times. Although I have spent many years teaching, this past year I was able to observe school from a completely different angle. During the stay-at-home order, I had my office in the same room as my seven-year-old. I would have preferred the office, but my husband had already taken dibs on that. My ten-year-old was in the kitchen and my eleven-year-old was in his room upstairs. For most of the morning, I felt as if I was in a second-grade classroom and when I went down to get a snack I was transported into fifth grade. It felt like I was part of a strange experiment with no idea how the outcome would be. I wondered, would my children be happier at home? Would they miss school?
My children have fantastic teachers who bent over backward to make things
work, but homeschooling was not the same. They missed being in the
classroom. They missed the personal touch that their teacher offered. They
missed hanging out with their friends. Art and sport lessons which they used
to love were just not the same. They were often grumpy, did fewer sports,
got tummy-aches, and their self-confidence for things they normally did well
began to decline. The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how
many things they were missing. Their independence. Their school community.
Their sense of self. On the day I brought my children to school for the
first time after a lengthy time at home, my ten-year-old who used to
complain of having to go to school in the morning sat in the back of the
car, closed his eyes, smiled, and said, “We’re going to school.” That
morning I went home with an idea for a children’s book which celebrated
everything that schools are and how important they are for children’s health
and well-being. That idea became
School is More Than a Building.
A school is more than a building, it’s a place where…
School is More Than a Building is an uplifting story for children of
primary school age which celebrates how important schools can be for
children's health and well-being. Having worked in many different types of
classrooms, I have tried to put together more than just a book. At
KelleyDonner.com you
will find a resource pack that includes various lesson plans, bulletin board
ideas, and art activities that you can use in the classroom. In addition,
I’ve put together a storytime video with a short art lesson that you can use
in your school.
I hope you enjoy my book and agree with me that a school is so much more
than just a building!
About School is More Than a Building
🍎 Title:
School is More Than a Building
🍎 Author: Kelley Donner
🍎 Illustrator: Kelley Donner
🍎 Publisher: A Little Donnerwetter Books
🍎 Date: May 27, 2021
🍎 Pages: 34
Watch this video of me reading School is More Than a Building and
learn how to draw a character like the ones in the book.
School is More Than a Building can be found on most online retail sites. You can find more
information about the book on
my website,
Facebook page, and in my
Facebook group School is More Than a Building.
Kelley Donner has written several children’s stories including
The Day the Lines Changed which was featured in the Washington Post
as one of the top ten children’s books about the pandemic (07/2020) and
A Very Corona Christmas, an Amazon best-selling new release
(10/2020). Kelley is originally from Kansas. She received her Master's
degree in Illustration and Book Arts from the Cambridge School of Art at
Anglia Ruskin and currently lives with her husband and three boys in the
UK.
Did you enjoy reading about School is More Than a Building? If so,
check out these other blog posts about more back-to-school books and
activities:
- Collection: Back to School Red Apple Crafts for Kids
- Pro Tip: 15 Reasons Why Children Need Recess
- Collection: 15 Children's Books for the First Day of School
- Collection: Back-to-School Crafts for Kids
- Book + Printable: Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton
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