With all eyes on outer space this spring, elementary students across the district have been buzzing with excitement as they prepare to welcome author Stacy McAnulty to their schools later this month.

McAnulty is an award-winning children’s book author and a BC graduate. The engineer-turned-writer has authored dozens of books popular with students in grades K-5. They include McAnulty’s middle-grade book The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, a highly-acclaimed children’s novel honored as a “best book of the year” by NPR and Kirkus Reviews.

McAnulty’s picture books include Excellent Ed and the “Our Universe” series of picture books. The colorful, fun-filled, and fact-filled Our Universe books include titles such as Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years, Moon! Earth’s Best Friend, Sun! One in a Billion and more.

Over the last several weeks, second graders across the district have spent time in their library classes gearing up for McAnulty’s visit by creating board games based on the Our Universe books. Working individually and in small groups, the students used their own creativity and imagination to map and draw unique playing boards, design all of the moving pieces and create “fact cards” using the McAnulty’s books as resource material. (Fact: A day on Mars is 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than a day on Earth.)

The students worked hard to create challenging games to enjoy with their friends and classmates. They each took turns rolling the dice, counting out their moves and reading their fact cards. (See photos below from Cailie Hafener’s library class at Hamagrael.)

Thanks to the generosity of the elementary PTOs and PTAs at Eagle, Elsmere, Glenmont, Hamagrael and Slingerlands, McAnulty will visit all five elementary schools the week of April 27-May 1.

Students and staff look forward to welcoming her back to BC!