I was in the bathroom with Kate DiCamillo!

Last Friday, Captain kids had the amazing opportunity to see Kate DiCamillo speak to school-children at St. Louis University.  It really lived up to the hype!

For starters, poor Nora tripped and fell outside, scraping her knee up.  Having no first aid supplies on me, I took her to the bathroom to clean up.  When we walked in, I saw right away that Kate DiCamillo was at the sink washing her hands.  I did my best to contain my excitement and not let on to Nora that we were in the presence of one of our favorite authors.  I didn't want to make Kate DiCamillo feel like we were stalking her.  It was all I could do not to say anything, but you know how teachers have to set a good example.  We cleaned Nora's knee up and headed back to our seats.  That's when I told her we were in the bathroom with Kate DiCamillo.  Shocked, and a little betrayed, Nora asked, "Why didn't you tell me?!"  I had to tell the truth: Kate DiCamillo was probably getting her head ready to present and probably didn't need us fawning over her in the bathroom, a place where you are supposed to be granted some privacy.  But at least we can say we were in there with her!  Okay, enough bathroom talk...here is what we really learned from Kate DiCamillo:

 Wait, this is just a picture of our class getting ready to see Kate DiCamillo speak.  All of us are there except two...

 There's our other two.  They got front row seats because they had questions that were selected to be asked after the presentation.  Blair and Paige represented our class well!

 Mayor Francis Slay declared October 25th Kate DiCamillo Day!  We got to see the proclamation delivered!

 This is what Kate DiCamillo asked herself as an aspiring writer.  She decided that she should get to work and began her writing routine of producing two pages a day of writing.  She continues her story from day-to-day, two pages at a time, until it is finished. 

This is the number of rejection letters she received before Because of Winn-Dixie was finally picked up for publishing.  She asked, "What if I had stopped at 200?"  This is a great lesson in having a growth mindset and persevering through challenge and setbacks. 

Overall, I think our main take-away from this field trip is that if you want something, you need to work for it.  And not just work, be consistent and disciplined, sometimes toil and persevere for years before you see the results you want... 

...also sometimes a trip and a fall can lead to sharing a bathroom with a famous author.

Guest Blogger Post - Lunar Eclipse

Photo Courtesy of Tanner Sharon

Photo Courtesy of Tanner Sharon

Did you wake to a moon that looked reddish?

Well if you did I can tell you why! It's called a lunar eclipse.

FACT: Lunar means moon and eclipse means obscuring light from one celestial body by the passage between it and the observer or between it and it's source of illumination.

Why did it happen?

Well a lunar eclipses happens when the earth passes between the moon and the sun and they all form a perfectly straight line so that's why it looks a reddish color.

What does it take to see a lunar eclipse?

Well the thing is we just had a lunar eclipse so you'll have to wait a while to see it but...

1. You have to know when it happens and you can just look on online when the next one will be.

2. It doesn't take any special equipment to see a lunar eclipse you can see it with your two naked eyes.

3. They are almost always in the morning so you will need an alarm clock to see it so you don't miss it!

So now you know a few things about the the lunar eclipse and you know the way to see a lunar eclipse!

• Paige Boeger