The 5th grade students spent the morning of January 30th over at the park center participating in a Writer's Workshop. They spent the morning listening to Beverly Patt. Beverly is the author of Haven, her first novel, and Best Friends Forever: A WW 11 Scrapbook. She writes from her suburban Chicago home. Using her book, Best Friends Forever: A WW 11 Scrapbook, Beverly Patt shared with the students how the path to publication is a winding road with many detours, dead ends and stops for refueling! The students continued their morning attending breakout sessions. The different sessions were titled, "What Did you Say?", "Details, Please!", "Getting a Good Idea", and "Creating Your Own Blog". In the session, "What Did you Say?", Beverly Patt discussed the different type of dialogue and how to use them to make your own characters and your story to come alive. Katie Drews presented Details, Please. Students in this session were taught techniques on effectively gathering facts and turning them into an interesting story. Getting a Good Idea was presented by Cheryl McPhilimy. Students learned how to keep the creative juices flowing and the ideas coming. They got to explore an assortment of ways to engage their brain, find a topic they like and start to write. The final breakout session was Creating Your Own Blog presented by Julie Tiu. THe students in this session learned how to read, write and edit a shared on-line journal. Their lunch was catered from All on the Road which was provided by the PTO. The students had an outstanding experience that they can carry with them for life.