Heaven and Mirth

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Here are Two Typical Schedules 

Half Day Schedule, Morning:

•   9:00 -   9:45            K-2 Assembly Program
• 10:00 - 10:45            3-6 Assembly Program
• 11:00 - 11:30            Art Work for school
• 11:30 - 12:30            Lunch with staff member off campus

Half Day Schedule, Afternoon:

• 12:45 - 1:30            K-2 Assembly Program
•   1:45 - 2:30            3-6 Assembly Program
•   2:45 - 3:00            Art work for school

  (There is not time in a half day program to sign student books - a book plate is provided on this website)

Full Day Schedule

Morning:

•   9:00 -   9:45        K-2 Assembly Program
• 10:00 - 10:45        3-6 Assembly Program
• 11:00 - 11:30        Art work for school
• 11:30 - 12:30        Lunch with staff member off campus

Afternoon: The following schedule could be used to have students come to the library for book signing** and/or questions and answers. 

• 12:45 - 1:00        Kindergarten
•  1:05 -  1:20       1st Grade
•  1:25 - 1:40        2nd Grade
•  1:45 - 2:00        3rd Grade
•  2:05 - 2:20        4th Grade
•  2:25 - 2:45        5th and 6th 
•  3:00 - 3:30        Bonus Teacher Q and A  

Possible afternoon activities (Please allow a 15-minute break between activities):

• Read to the P.M. Kindergarten class (15 minutes).
• Visit special education class and create a personal drawing for each student.
• Group session with 10 members selected from each grade (reading contest winners, etc.). Mike signs their books and holds a Q&A session.
• Q&A session for each grade (approximately 15-20 minutes per grade, held in gymnasium/cafeteria).
• Sign student books (recommended for a maximum of 200 books, one per student.)  

Please allow a 15-minute break between activities

This is a written narrative by Bedra Wilholt, of Providence Day School, where I did a program several years ago.  

          "America's Riddle King, armed with his love of language and lots of laughter, arrived at Providence Day School on February 14 and spent the entire day mesmerizing the students. Mike Thaler, famous author and illustrator of more than eighty children's books, spun webs of excitement and enthusiasm with his riddles, knock-knock Jokes, stories, and illustrations.
           From his first illustration to his last story, he stimulated the children to participate and react to each activity. If they weren't creating riddles or making sound effects for his Ivories, they were deciding if his monster drawing should have a belly button!
         Mike Thaler, a 48-year-old resident of Stone Ridge, New York, spends much of his time traveling around the country creating books and riddles with children and teachers. He believes that riddle-making is a useful tool for stimulating creative use and awareness of language. It teaches syllabication, synonyms, proper grammar, rhyming, and communication.
           Thaler spends each morning devotedly writing and creating a continuous stream of absurdly wonderful ideas. Besides writing, he sculpts, teaches, draws, and "eats with inspiring creativity."
          Casual in manner and dress, Thaler intrigued the third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders with his workshop on riddle-making.
           "Where do pigs live in Alaska?"
           "In Pigloos!"
           "What do you call a pig who represents a foreign country?”
           "A Hambassador!"
          From there, Thaler led the children through his riddle-making process. Working with dictionaries and their imaginations, the children created their own funny and imaginative riddles and shared them with each other. These riddles will be put in a student-produced book and placed in the Lower School Library for students to check-out and read. He ended his program by sharing his newest book (not yet published) with the children. They loved the plot in which the cafeteria food comes to life and begins to eat every-thing in its path! Cream-of-Creature from the School Cafeteria is destined to be another hit for Thaler!
           The kindergarten- through second-graders were spellbound as Thaler read several of his books for them. They especially enjoyed A Hippopotamus Ate The Teacher, and they laughed hysterically as they looked at their teachers and thought of a hippopotamus teaching them addition! Their interaction with Thaler reached a peak as they described different features for his various illustrations. Whether he was giving these creations "big fat ears" or "triangular, hairy ears", the children continued to be a major part of the program. Before ending the program the children insisted that Thaler draw his most famous character, Letterman, which he created for the "Electric Company" television program. Kindergarten-, first-, and second-graders will now have a "Name the Monster" contest and "Name the Boat" contest. These illustrations, drawn by Thaler from the children's descriptions, are signed and dated by the author and will be awarded to the winners of each contest."