Shelly Gill

Visiting Author

    Blue Mountain Elementary Schools hosted visiting author Shelley Gill on March 20 and 21, 2007. Shelley Gill thrilled, amazed and awed the children and staff at all three elementary schools; as well as, at the Eagle Foundation Dinner. She shared her knowledge and experiences with wildlife and nature from Alaska to Antarctica, including swimming with blue whales in Mexico.

     Students throughout BMEW, BMEC, and BMEE were read books written by Shelley Gill. Her books created many discussions on bears, penguins ,and whales which led to further research. Her books also helped students to realize how important it is to use your imagination and have dreams. The children created stories of their own based on Shelley Gill’s books. They researched facts about penguins, bears, and whales and wrote reports using the information learned. Shelley even commented that she learned things about penguins when reading the reports written by the students.  Students even use their math skills to graph the sizes of different whales.

     The students were given challenges to complete prior to Shelley Gill’s visit. All three buildings participated in an Iditarod Reading Challenge. The students were asked to read as many books as there are miles in the Iditarod. All three buildings exceeded this goal. The students were also given a physical challenge to walk laps or exercise for the number of minutes equal to the number of miles in the Iditarod.  Again, the students in all three buildings exceeded this goal.

     This grant provided a truly exciting and educational opportunity for all students in the elementary schools in the Blue Mountain School District.

Standards covered:

          1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.8, 2.6