Children's Book Author Mike Graf

Will travel to some areas. Please inquire with author. Zoom talks also available!

Weather, Writing, Stem, World's Best Places...

• National Park Tours: Take a tour with full color photos, stories, park information, animal sightings, vacation planning, and drama of each of these national parks: Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Glacier, Zion and Bryce Canyon, Arches and Canyonlands, Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Olympic, Rocky Mountain, and Badlands/Mt. Rushmore. Each "tour" will be about an hour long and will leave the audience wanting to head immediately to that national park!

• National Park Adventures and Realistic Fiction: This is my most requested presentation. Schools get a combination of national park drama and storytelling, national park background information from key parks, and realistic fiction writing tips and techniques. This one hour assembly is best suited for 2nd grade and up, but adjustments can easily be made for lower grades. This also fits well with my Adventures with the Parkers series of books.
• New! Take a Tour of the State with the Most National Parks in the Country, California!: From Yosemite to Death Valley, the Redwoods, Lassen, and Pinnacles, this presentation will share scenery, wildlife, history, and preservation of all 9 of our beautiful national parks. This topic is also, highly aligned with California 4th grade curriculum. It makes for a great 30 minute Zoom/Skype! This is a brand new presentation!

• New! Birding! Based on the book, My Awesome Field Guide to North American Birds: In this presentation I will share stories about some of the birds I've encountered while hiking and exploring national parks and other areas. In addition, students will learn how to identify birds, learn some common North American birds, and about their habitat, diet, flight patterns, and more. This is a brand new presentation!

• The World's Best Places: I will give you and your students a tour of some of the most unique, special, historical and fascinating places our world has to offer. Many of these locations are designated as the "World's Best Places" by UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. What are some of the places that your students will learn about? The Great Wall of China, Africa's Wildlife National Parks, The pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, European Castles and Churches, Stonehenge, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, New Zealand's Rainforest National Parks, The Dead Sea, the Olympiad and its ruins and much more. This is a great presentation for 5th grade and up--for students learning social studies, science and much more!

• All About Weather: This one hour presentation teaches all about severe weather, storm chasing, weather safety, and basic meteorology. During this talk, I will also read sections from some of my books on weather and tell stories from my weathercasting and storm chasing past. This topic is best for 2nd grade and up.
• Writing Workshop: This 60-75 minute workshop is for smaller groups and follows my National Park Adventures and Realistic Fiction presentation. During this workshop I give further advice on writing and promote and guide students to begin writing their own stories by giving feedback along the way. In these presentations I teach students to write the beginning, middle, and end of a story, encompassing such techniques as foreshadowing, character development, setting descriptions, building suspense, and editing, among others. This topic works well for GATE/TAG students and grades 4th and up.

• Non-Fiction Writing Workshop: In this workshop students will be guided through the Non-Fiction Writing Process. Topics included are how to research and write for a particular subject. Students will learn how to put text into their own writer's voice and how to design and set-up an informational, yet attention grabbing book. Further, the presentation will cover the use of photos and illustrations, maps and diagrams, page-by-page set up, and getting writing to a particular grade level. The editing process will also be included. In the end students will learn how to take a topic and write about it from start to finish, whether as a paper or to make the topic into a book.

• Weather Workshop: Following my weather assembly, students will make cloud charts illustrating the four basic types of clouds and the weather each brings. Students will also learn about other cloud types and gets some basic tips on a weather broadcast. This presentation is for smaller groups and GATE/TAG classes from 4th grade and up.

• S.T.E.M. Science: I will present to you and your students a 75 minute STEM Science lesson. The lesson can be geared toward 3rd through 6th grades. I'll cover background information about a STEM concept related to a lesson. Then I'll let the students work on the project. Finally, we'll wrap-up, demonstrate, and give feedback. This STEM workshop is geared for one class at a time

Have presented at 1000's of schools all over the country. Also a former teacher.