My visit to Jacksonville

with Bruce Van Patter

2007-2008 School Visits

My visit to Jacksonville!

A great way to spend a spring day!

The assembly drawings

The four ingredients: a wizard in an ice-cream store who wants a new skateboard up against an alien with a huge brain

The story: This wizard got fired from his wizard job so he took a part-time job at an ice cream store where he hopes to be the fastest delivery boy ever. He has to be fast, after all, it is ice cream! So he puts a spell on a skateboard and turns it into a flying dragon board.

But an alien has come to earth to get the ice cream and give everyone a brain freeze so that he can take over the world!

I hope everyone appreciated that I had the song of the day in an alien-sounding song to play while I sketched!

The four ingredients: a balloon boy on a village at the edge of a cliff looking for a way to escape up against a clock guy

The story: I can't actually remember what the want was -- I think it was to escape. Anyway, he's using his balloons to go someplace to get help to save the village from a tsunami that the boy thinks is coming.

But the clock guy is dragging him down!

The workshop stories

A superhero dog gets his powers from a golden bone. But a girl poodle takes the bone, thinking that it's a gift. Little does she know that the park cats outside the city apartment where the dog lives want to take the bone to make our dog hero normal forever.

The dog's powers are fading, so that when he wants to fly in and get the bone, he does more falling than flying.

I wonder if we could say that he's falling for this poodle?

Here's a fantastic idea: a dunk tank sends a girl into a magical world where she's transformed into a mermaid. Her goggles enable her to find the portal in the ocean that will let her come back to her own world.

But there's an evil octopus that steals the goggles so that he can come to our world and take it over. The girl realizes that she can't get them back while she's in his world, so she hangs onto the octopus to follow him back into the dunk tank. Then she sends him back with one well-aimed throw!

I think the ending will make a big splash!

In addition to all the free material on this site, I have downloadable books that are perfect for keeping kids writing in school or at home!

(click on books to see)

The Adventures of Pirate Dog
Picture prompts are a great way to inspire kids to write! Here are 26 of my best drawings with fun, pre-writing worksheets

Write Your Own
Cartoons!
Kids can add the
dialogue and their special touches to my funny comic strips filled with wacky characters!

Sparks: Year One
Here’s a fantastic resource for teachers: a whole year of weekly creative writing lessons built around wacky holidays!

More to come!

Fun was flowing like water out of a magic dunk tank!

Hey, Jacksonville kids, you are creative!

Keep putting your ideas down on paper and share them with your friends, teachers and family. And thanks for making the day so a creative time!

And check out some of the fun stuff I have on my site!

	Pick the ingredients to stories and click through to see how I've started them. Then you finish the story!		Make a character out of some funny people I've drawn for you!			Strange news is happening! Let my Headline Maker give you a really weird headline. Then write a story!
click on the images to go to the writing activities