Erin Dealey

Hi Blog Readers–Our teacher Mrs. Pete read us Erin Dealey’s new book, DEAR EARTH…From Your Friends in Room 5 (Harper Collins) and guess what?

5th Graders still like picture books!

Here are a few things we like about DEAR EARTH…From Your Friends in Room 5:

• The pictures by Luisa Uribe and how much color there was. –Omar M.

• It talked about Earth. –Mireyli M.G.
• Earth and the kids (and the boy, Bernard) were writing letters to each other. –Alexis H., Madelyn B., Nevaeh H., and Kristy M.

• The part where they made a veggie garden. –Anthony R.F.
• The part where Room 5 planted a tree. –Shelly H.
• How they reused stuff. –Dallis T.

• People saving the earth. –Haley T.

It made us think about…

• Taking better care of Earth. –Tyler K.
• If we can be more eco-friendly, what would that change bout the earth?     –Omar M.
• Keeping Earth clean. –Mireyli M.G.
• Not wasting a lot of paper. –Anthony R.F.
• Starting to create less trash–and compost.  –Shelly H.
• That you should keep the earth clean and healthy. –Madelyn B.

It also made us think about talking to someone that lives far away from you.

It made us think we should start to save the earth.

It’s something we want to start doing.

Also…

We have questions for you, Erin Dealey:

Q 1. from Tyler K.: What’s the best thing that you could do for Earth?

Erin Dealey: As you saw in DEAR EARTH…, there are many ways we can help Earth all year long. So I think one of the best things we can do is make Earth Day every day. Earth Day is wonderful. But let’s move forward from helping EARTH and our environment on just that day. Why not make these eco-friendly habits part of our daily lives?

Q 2. from Alexis H.: Can you teach us about the four R’s and what we can do to help the earth?

Erin Dealey: If you check out the back matter of DEAR EARTH…, you’ll see my suggestions about the four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Renew. I chose to add a4th R,  renew, because cleaning up bleaches and playgrounds–really, anywhere that we live–can help restore the extraordinary beauty of our world. And planting a tree not only adds to the beauty (and shade) but helps absorb fossil fuel gases and produce oxygen which refreshes  our air.

PS Your question prompted me to mask up, glove up, and clean up our road. Look at all the trash I found!

Q 3. from Omar M.: How do you come up with stories for a book? 

Erin Dealey: I find ideas everywhere. Sometimes a crazy What If? will pop into my head. Or a phrase that might make a fun title like GOLDIE LOCKS HAS CHICKEN POX (My very first picture book–which I wrote in the pick-up line of YOUR school!) and PETER EASTER FROG, a board book which will be released this January 2021. The inspiration for DEAR EARTH… came from a holiday card of an angel holding Earth in her hands. My first draft was a conversation between the angel and Earth. Eventually, this became the letters between Room 5 and Earth.

Q 4. from Nayeli L.S.: Can read read more books….please? 

Erin Dealey: Oh my, YES. Absolutely, Nayeli! Read, read, read!

We zoomed with Erin Dealey and wrote poems about all kinds of things.

Here’s our poem for EARTH:

And here are some individual poems we wrote. Ms. Dealey says they are excellent examples of VOICE:  

Thank you for letting us

takeover your blog, Erin Dealey.

Thank you for teaching us: 

Happy safe Holiday to all.