Making Memories: The FISH! Skype with New York Times Best Selling Author!

What an unbelievable day we had!  The students of 5B and I are probably still walking on air and pinching ourselves asking, “Is it a dream?”  Nope, fortunately for us, it is not a dream!  It really happened!  We got to Skype with a New York Times Best-Selling Author today!  Ms. Laura Schroff, author of the great book, “An Invisible Thread,” which just so happens to be the book we are reading in class!

It all began with Lehia hoʻokipa (ing) Ms. Schroff into our class and sharing a little about where we are located, followed by Sophia sharing a little about us!  Everyone got to introduce themselves to Ms. Schroff as she greeted us one by one with such warmth, it felt like a warm hug all the way from New York!  She shared a little about herself and then it started…the thoughtful questions kept coming.  The students and Ms. Schroff traded information, kept diving into the actual text to locate the specific chapters and refer to the exact words.  Tayzia said that this was a great example of Close reading!  We spoke of feelings, fears, trust, symbolism (of a brown paper bag), manaʻo nui (big idea), message that she wanted readers to walk away with, and even pointers on what authors should include when writing a book!

Ehu shared our 5th grade olelo noeʻau, how it represents us, and the meaning behind it…weʻll be sending a kukui nut lei to New York too!  We got to share Dayanee and Tayziaʻs Project Kahiau videos to let her know that we too believe that we can change the world, one heart at a time.  She was impressed and touched that her book inspired 24 caring families into action to help our community over the holidays!  We also got to meet Emma, the cutest little dog we ever saw!  Mahina kaheaʻd the oli mahalo and Brock closed our one hour Skype session by thanking her!

As we got ready to click off…we shared that according to Hawaiian cultural practice, the first time people meet, a hoʻokipa is in order…the second time, we are family!  On that note, we bid “Aunty” Laura an “a hui hou” until we reach the end of her wonderful book!  We will be skypeing again with Aunty Laura soon…dive back into our FISH!bowl to get the latest scoops!

FISH! take a quick trip to New York!