May 12, 2012

What: “Meet Author Kari-Lynn Winters”
When: Saturday, May 12, 10:15-11:05am
Where: 1 Atkinson St, Richmond Hill, Ontario

TD Celebrate Children’s Book Week – Read a Book, Share a Story

Let’s tell, clap, tap and act out some stories with Kari-Lynn Winters as we celebrate Children’s Book Week. This 50 minute interactive presentation is both educational and full of fun. Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts.

This program is for pre-school age to grade two. Parents are encouraged to accompany their children to this program. See library events page and this event listing.

May 5, 2012

What: I’ll be leading three workshops at Booktopia; see booktopia.ca.
When: May 5 and 7, 2012
Where: West Vancouver Memorial Library

Moving with Math and Literacy: It’s aRHYTHMetic!

Saturday, May 5 @ 11:30 am-12:20 pm,  Ages 4-7
West Vancouver Memorial Library, Welsh Hall

In this interactive workshop, students will use storytelling, movement, improvisation, puppets, as well as Kari-Lynn’s books, aRHYTHMetic and Count Us In (co-written with Tiffany Stone and Lori Sherritt-Fleming), in order to create deeper understandings about math and literacy. This workshop is full of giggles, reading activities, and math concepts.  It offers dynamic and embodied strategies to bring books to life for young readers and writers.

When the Wild Things Visit Storytown

Saturday, May 5 @ 1:30-2:20 pm, Ages 4-7
West Vancouver Memorial Library, Welsh Hall

What happens when the Wild Things start tearing up Storytown? Move like Wild Things, then participate in a town interview where students become important townspeople, and devise a range of ways to capture the Wild Things and convince them to stop destroying property. Students learn about reading comprehension through movement, active storytelling and oral presentations. This workshop is based on the classic book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Move Beyond Writer’s Block: Get Inside the Story

Monday, May 7 @ 4:00-5:00 pm, Ages 8-12
West Vancouver Memorial Library, Storyhouse

What happens when Jeffrey gets carried away and starts to make Sloth do any number of things? Put yourself inside Kari-Lynn’ picture book story, Jeffrey and Sloth in order to connect to, predict, engage with, and infer the meanings it contains. Use role play to become a sloth, art to draw a new ending, or music to create a chamber of whispers and sounds. Participate in an imagined court case, and devise a myriad of artful ways to get these characters to stop being so controlling. Active storytelling, movement, songs, puppets, and oral presentations make this workshop a hit with students!

January 26, 2012

What: I’ll be attending and meeting with fellow authors, my agent, and editors at the SCBWI Winter Conference
When: January 27-29
Where: Grand Hyatt, New York City

I’ll be at the summer SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in August, as well.

January 20, 2012

My friend Janis Roughley made a nice video preview of my book Runaway Alphabet. You can watch it by clicking on the YouTube video link below.

November 18, 2011

click for full-size poster

What: Workshop: There Is Enough Time in the Day! How “Art-ful” Educators Maximize Meaning Making across the Curriculum.
When: Friday November 18, 11:am-12:15pm
Where: Chicago Hilton / Palmer House, Salon Three, 3^rd floor

Join kc dyer, Lee Edward Fodi, Lori Sherritt-Fleming, and myself as we give an interactive demonstration. We show how educators can successfully encourage students to connect ‘artfully’ to cross-curricular outcomes so that teaching literacy is not a separate experience, but rather an assemblage, taught through all subject areas. Quick and easy visual art, drama, dance, and music activities model how an ‘art-full’ day can build a more literate classroom. Writing Levels: Elementary (K-5), Middle (6-8).

Information about the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention is available at ncte.org/store/2011-annual-convention; see also the events listings or download Lee’s poster.

October 29, 2011

What: Kid-lit Writing for Children Workshops
When: Saturday October 29
Where: 5035 de Maisonneuve West, Montreal

Writing for Children Workshops
Led by Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters
Saturday October 29, $25 for one workshop, $40 for both
5035 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal (Vendome metro)

Workshop 1, 11am to 12pm, Genre Transformations: Moving between Plays, Graphic Novels, and Picture Books:

Finding the most apt genre for your story is no easy task. Writing for the stage is different than writing for the page. Similarly, a play is distinct from writing a picture book or writing a graphic novel — not only the format, but in the composing itself. As an award-winning children’s author and playwright who has had experience writing across these three genres, Kari-Lynn Winters can say that each transformation requires its own unique organization, thought pattern, and communicative expression. Ideas such as text purpose, writer/reader relationships, rhythms, and benefits/limitations of different genres will be explored. Illustrators are invited to attend this interactive session.

Workshop 2, 1 to 2pm, Keep ‘em Laughing: Writing Funny Fiction:

Humour is a tremendous tool for writers. When done well, it can make your stories more memorable, improve your chances of being published, and earn you financial and personal rewards. In this workshop, award-winning children’s author and playwright Kari-Lynn Winters will draw on her own books as well as the writing of others in order to demonstrate concrete ways to hone your humour writing skills and to keep your audiences giggling.

A maximum of 30 people will be accepted per workshop.

Email Carol-Ann Hoyte to register.

About the workshop leader: Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children’s author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. Sixteen of her picture or poetry books have been published or are in press. An experienced teacher of writing, she has worked with students across Canada and the United States, including pre-school, special education, primary and intermediate, high school, and university teacher education. Kari-Lynn is an assistant professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, ON. Her research interests include drama in education, children’s literature, literacy, and multimodal forms of learning. More information about Kari-Lynn can be found at www.kariwinters.com.

October 21, 2011

What: professional workshops for writers
When: Saturday October 22 and Sunday October 23
Where: Surrey, BC

“Picture Perfect Picture Books,” Saturday 3:30pm

Show, don’t tell. Explore the cadence of the language. Create images in the readers’ minds. These are concepts that many authors grapple with, regardless of genre. In this workshop, award-winning picture book author Kari-Lynn Winters will demonstrate some of the tools you can use to make your children’s writing leap, sing, and dance off the page.

“Keep ‘em Laughing: Writing Funny Fiction for Kids,” Sunday 11:00am

Humour is a tremendous tool for writers. When done well, it can make your stories more memorable, improve your chances of being published, and earn you financial and personal rewards. In this workshop, award-winning children’s author and playwright Kari-Lynn Winters will draw on her own books as well as the writing of others in order to demonstrate concrete ways to hone your humour writing skills and to keep your audiences giggling.

See www.siwc.ca/speaker/2011/kari-lynn-winters

September 25, 2011

What: Hosting Toronto’s annual Word on the Street festival
When: Sunday September 25, 2011, 11am – 6pm
Where: Queen’s Park, Toronto

The Word On The Street is a national celebration of literacy and the written word. On one extraordinary Sunday each September, in communities coast to coast, the public is invited to participate in hundreds of author events, presentations and workshops and to browse a marketplace that boasts the best selection of Canadian books and magazines you’ll find anywhere.

There is always plenty to see and do at Canada’s largest book and magazine festival, and best of all, The Word On The Street and all of its events are FREE!

Kari-Lynn Winters – Host
Event Info: Children’s Activity Tent at 2:45 PM – 5:45 PM

Kari-Lynn Winters is a picture book author, poet, and performer. After finishing her doctoral program at UBC in literacy education, Kari-Lynn assumed her new job as Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, where she teaches drama-in-education to and mentors teacher candidates. Kari-Lynn has over a dozen books published or in press, many of which have won reader’s choice awards.

See more at www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/toronto/author/kari-lynn-winters-host.

September 18, 2011

What: Readings and meet-the-author
When: September 15-18
Where: near Guelph, Ontario

Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children’s author, playwright, performer, and scholar. An experienced teacher of writing, Kari-Lynn has worked with students across Canada and the United States in preschools, elementary and high schools, community centres, festivals, and universities. Her latest book, Runaway Alphabet, is a fun way to introduce the alphabet to children. Instead of focusing on words beginning with each letter of the alphabet (a is for alligator, etc.), it introduces letters to kids through sounds made by people or objects, such as “g-g-g-g” for the sound Pa makes when gulping down his coffee. Kari-Lynn is an assistant professor at Brock University. Her research interests include drama in education, children’s literature, literacy, and multimodal forms of learning. More information about Kari-Lynn and her books (i.e., book reviews, author visits, teachers’ guides) can be found at www.kariwinters.com.

See edenmillswritersfestival.ca.

September 17, 2011

What: Invited performance and puppet show
When: Saturday September 17, 11am-4pm
Where: Robert Welch Hall and the IRC, Brock University

This year the Faculty of Education is proud to be welcoming graduates back to campus for tours and events in Robert Welch Hall and the IRC on Saturday, September 17 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. as part of Brock Days 2011.

Meet your Faculty of Education friends on Saturday Sept. 17 at 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. as you take a brief tour through your old stomping grounds. Bring your family and view the impressive changes to Welch Hall and the Instructional Resource Centre (IRC), which showcases a collection of Ellison Dies and puppets. While on tour, you’ll stop at the Education Technology Digital Playground to play with some of the latest educational technology resources and see how they are being used to support 21st century learners. Stop by to see how SMART boards, digital video cameras, iPods, smartpens and clickers are changing teaching and learning.

Events for the whole family! Current Faculty of Education students will treat guests to a show using the IRC’s impressive collection of puppets, and award winning children’s book author and Assistant Professor Kari-Lynn Winters will be onsite for readings from her published works.

And don’t miss:

See more at www.brocku.ca/education/alumniandfriends/alumniweekend2011.

August 5, 2011

Meet me in LA! The conference features “3 spectacular days of agents, editors, publishers, workshops and networking plus one optional day of intensives, all designed to take your writing and illustration to the next level.” See www.scbwi.org/Conference.aspx?Con=8.

May 28, 2011

What: Guest Speaker, Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Conference
When: Saturday May 28, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Where: Holiday Inn Express (Metrotown), 4405 Central Boulevard, Burnaby, B.C.

Guest Speakers:

• Teresa Bubela, Art Director, Orca Book Publishers
• Eillen Cook, author, “The Education of Hailey Kendrick”
• Christ Howes, Editor, Orca Book Publishers
• Jared Hunt, author and editor
• Crystal J. Stranaghan, author, “The Pirate Who Lost His Aarrr!”
• Kari-Lynn Winters, author, “On My Walk”

More info:

• Webpage: www.scbwicanada.org/west/
• Conference brochure: scbwicanada.org/west/Forms/Conference%20Information.pdf
• Registration form: scbwicanada.org/west/Forms/Registration%20Form2.pdf

April 30, 2011

What: Presentation by Kari and other artists and authors
When: Saturday April 30, 2011
Where: Toronto, Northern District Branch Library

The Toronto Public Library is organizing the second annual “Book Bash! Children’s Literature Festival.” This event is part of a series and is made possible by the Muller Scholastic Endowment Fund for Canadian Children’s Literature. The Book Bash! Children’s Literature Festival will allow the library to promote Canadian authors and illustrators and their work, to promote reading for pleasure and our early literacy programs, and to showcase Toronto Public Library as a place to experience fun family events.

The program will feature many wonderful presentations by recognized Canadian children’s authors and illustrators. There will also be storytellers, puppet shows, crafts, storytime programs and staff book talks. Meet talents like:

Barbara Reid
Cary Fagan
Kari-Lynn Winters
Mariella Bertelli
Marthe Jocelyn
Richard Scrimger
Rita Cox
Ruth Ohi
Shane Peacock
Sharon Jennings

This event is in conjunction with Keep Toronto Reading, a series of free special events across the city that celebrate the joy of reading. The festival will take place on Saturday April 30th 2011 in the afternoon, from approximately 12:30 – 4:00 pm. The festival will be at the newly renovated Northern District Branch, 30 Orchard View Blvd, near Yonge and Eglinton. We will make use of the library’s open spaces and multiple program rooms to run simultaneous festival events.

The festival culminates Keep Toronto Reading month, an annual Toronto Public Library celebration of books and culture. Tying the Book Bash! to Keep Toronto Reading this year will enable the festival to benefit from the huge promotional push and substantial media attention that Keep Toronto Reading garners. For further information about the Book Bash! Children’s Literature Festival, please contact:

Debora Attack, Department Head, Office of the Children and Youth Advocate and TD Summer Reading Club
Phone 416 -393-7507, Fax 416-393-7417
Email dattack(at)torontopubliclibrary.ca

See more about the event at www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/bookbash. See the page about me at Meet Author Kari-Lynn Winters.

March 30, 2011

I am included in the video below from the 40th anniversary of CODE, Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators. As a drama educator, I think this organization offers tremendous resources in drama teachings. My interview starts at the 4:40-minute mark. Click on the small embedded video below, or see a larger-resolution version of the video at vimeo.com/20685983.

February 25, 2011

Resource Links has listed On My Walk among “Year’s Best – 2010″ in the Picture Books category. See http://www.resourcelinksmagazine.ca.