This is a picture of some enthusiastic young readers who are very excited about their new book. St Anne’s School are the currently leading the way for the rest of New Zealand with their participation in a new food education program I have developed called ‘What’s for Lunch?’

The program works with the primary school curriculum to teach children about making healthy choices. The pupils learn about a new healthy food mainly vegetables every week through an interactive story, science experiment, recipe and worksheet. The program launched at the beginning of 2014 and is in use in many schools throughout the lower north island.

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The reason for my visit was to donate some books to the children who were spending their Christmas in hospital. This was such a lovely experience as I often struggle to see a way I can help those in need during the holiday season. I am now at the stage in my life where I actually have a product that can help in a unique way. My story will be used to distract and ease the pain for many children who are having a tough Christmas.

What is also very cool is that the grandma in the book is a lot like her in characteristics. I wonder if she realizes I based the character on her.

Throughout my life she has been an amazing role model and inspiration to me and I am like her in so many ways. I hope I too live to see 98 years old and am as great as her. Happy Birthday Grandma Burrell!

(signed by Author Illustrator optional)

*Orders must be placed by 12pm Christmas Eve Tuesday 24th December 2013.
Address must be a physical, no PO boxes as this is a last minute delivery they will not be posted by mail.
We will deliver it to your door anywhere in the following suburbs of Wellington city:

Aro Valley, Berhampore, Breaker Bay, Brooklyn, Churton Park, Crofton Downs, Glenside, Grenada North, Happy Valley, Hataitai, Houghton Bay, Island Bay, Johnsonville, Kaiwharawhara, Karori, Kelburn, Khandallah, Kilbirnie, Lower Hutt, Lyall Bay, Makara, Miramar, Mornington, Mount Cook, Mount Victoria, Newlands, Newtown, Ngaio, Ngauranga, Northland, Oriental Bay, Owhiro Bay, Petone, Redwood, Rongotai, Seatoun, Shelly Bay, Tarikaka Settlement, Tawa, Te Aro, Thorndon, Upper Hutt, Vogeltown, Wadestown, Wellington Central, Wilton, Worser Bay

After talking a bit about what I do, we read the book aloud, I say we because all the children helped me! What talented little readers, they were able to keep up with me through the entire book, some even read it faster than me. I then got cracking, drawing some pictures on the whiteboard, the children were great at helping me figure out what to draw next. I had to draw a plait with my first drawing, a rat’s tail with my second drawing and an entire beard with my last drawing, oh what fun.

After my visit I came home with a pile of colouring in competitions to judge. This is always a tricky task as there are so many talented artists at Maoribank School. I had such a hard time picking my favourites! But it had to be done and the two winners used a lot of bright vibrant colours and were creative in their approach. A big CONGRATULATIONS to Nathan age 6 and Sapphire age 9. Well done! Your prize is on its way to Maoribank School.

Thank you so much for having me Maoribank School! Keep up the great artwork:)

Take a look: Click here

One of the cool things about this visit was that I went to Plateau School when I was little. It was great to return after all these years and see how things had changed. There were some familiar faces amongst the staff but lots of new ones as well. The school is just how I remembered it and still holds a very warm feeling in my heart.

I started my presentation with some photos my mother dug up of me at the school. This was cool as I think it really helped the children realise that I was once one of them. I then showed them a bunch of my illustrations and there was a lot of laugher at my caricature of a dog riding a Harley-Davidson. I had the book loaded onto my ipad and told the kids they could read along with if they liked. I wasn’t prepared for the fact that every child in the school knew my book and all the words. They all read long with me every single word, it was awesome!

I then picked a few volunteers to come up while I drew them on the whiteboard. They were very brave coming up in front of the whole school and trusting me to draw a nice picture of them. I had all the children help me figure out what to draw next. This was very cool and really created a lot of energy and excitement as they watch their friend become a cartoon.

After all the fun at the school I then had the particularly tricky job of judging the colouring in competition this weekend. I spread them out over my lounge floor and was blown away with the talent of these pupils. It was a very difficult thing to judge because the creativity was outstanding! There were stripes and hearts added, bright colours and patterns and even the use of highlighter pens which I especially liked. But there has to be a winner, or three in this case. So I have selected three that I felt did a terrific job at bringing these pictures to life.

Congratulations to the three lucky students below!

After rounding everyone up and setting up I began by drawing a cow on the whiteboard. It took a few guesses to figure out which animal I was drawing  but they figured it out. I explained the reason I had written a story about a fly was because there were a lot on my farm because of all the cow dung.

I went on the read the story and I could feel their excitement build, they loved telling me where the fly was on every page.

Once the book was finished I got a brave little volunteer to come up the front so I could draw a picture of them. This was quite a hit and I could feel the children creeping closer and closer as I drew. I ended up with them practically on my lap. Once I had drawn a few kids we then created a story together and I drew the pictures as we went. We had one of the pupils as the main character and his mum over for dinner. They had a hard time coming up with 3 vegetables to go on his plate, with lots of fruit being mistaken for vegetables but we got there in the end.

I had a great time sharing my story with Busy Beez Childcare Centre and hope I inspired them to create lots of stories and pictures of their own.