“Wow, that was fun!” said 5-year-old Michael after our first “Write, Publish, and Publicize An Award-Winning Book” lesson via Skype in the Classroom, with the energetic and tech-savvy Mrs. Joan McWilliams and her kindergarten in the Highland Falls Fort Montgomery Central School District.

On our first day of giving Skype Classroom lessons, we visited first with kids age 5 to 10 in Mrs. McWilliams’s class in New York State. Second, we Skyped with a school located on a remote cattle farm in Australia; and third, we chatted with children in a school in India. Wow! By the time it was late enough here to talk to kids in India, Michael was exhausted, so Lisa did a short lesson that will be continued next week.

During these Skype in the Classroom lessons, we helped the Australian students, age 5 to 6, start a fictional story about a cranky crocodile who makes his way to their classroom. After our brainstorming session with the students, Jasmine Shannon, teaching principal for Tipperary Station School, told us that her young writers picked up their pencils and wrote a little book. We were so thrilled to hear this! You can watch a portion of our brainstorming session with the young authors in this video:

We were excited to connect with these budding authors in Australia and meet the brave Jasmine Shannon, who is so enthusiastic about working on a remote cattle farm.

During our Write, Publish, Publicize an Award-Winning Book! lesson with Mrs. McWilliams’s class of adorable 5- and 6-year-olds, the students got to see our dog, Hudson, discussed the role of feelings in writing, talked about how the students respond to feedback about their writing, and came up with some awesome ideas for the next books in our “Bash And Lucy” series. Here are the students giving us their ideas:

At the beginning of the class, Michael named some of his favorite books, and turns out, Mrs. McWilliams happened to have one of those books in her classroom, “Henry And Mudge in Puddle Trouble.” Here she and Michael discuss what they like about this book (This is where the “cool dad” comes in):

Our visit with the Mrs. McWilliams’s class was arranged by Kristen Magyar, the school’s technology coach.

We also visited briefly with a very dedicated teacher, Ritu Chopra, of Fountainhead School, and were thrilled to meet her class of 9- and 10-year-olds in India! We discussed how much Michael loves books, and how reading as a child inspired Lisa to become a writer. Ritu’s students provided some very thoughtful insights into what they do and don’t like about the book, “Holes.” In our next session, the kids will do book reviews of “Holes,” and we’re going to share these reviews on Our YouTube Channel, along with the kids’ book reviews Michael does with friends age 5 to 13.

Next week, we have a number of classes lined up, and can’t wait! If you’re interested in learning more about our lesson, email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com. To follow our Skype in the Classroom updates, follow us on twitter: @BashAndLucy. And be sure to dive in and write your own crocodile stories!