The Creative Process—Up Close!
UNH Graduate returns as children’s author for CSDC Literacy Week
When author and illustrator Kirsten Merinda Jeffery met with children in early March at the Child Study and Development Center (CSDC) to talk about her book, Mother Nature’s Dream, her advice to young writers made a big impression. Jeffery ’06 earned her undergraduate degree in family studies and is now a graduate student in social work. Her visit to was part of the center’s annual Literacy Week.
Jeffery read from her book and guided the children through the watercolor technique she used to illustrate her story. Jeffery’s own family of four daughters, each born in a different season, inspired the magical story about the seasons of the year.
Then the children practiced different watercolor techniques, learning how to look closely at facial features and proportionality. “Many children have revisited work that they began while Kirsten was here and have talked about ‘taking their time like Kirsten does.’”
“Having the opportunity to meet and work with a real author and illustrator means that the writing process becomes real for the children,” explains kindergarten teacher Karen Dubois-Garofalo. “We talk a lot about authors writing books and creating pictures and encouraging children to be authors themselves. This experience brings this invisible process of the author’s work to life.”
Other Literacy Week events included an evening workshop on supporting children’s literacy development at home by Kathy Collins, a CSDC parent and author of Growing Readers and Reading for Real.
Having both Jeffery and Collins participate in this year’s Literacy Week was special. CSDC Executive Director John Nimmo commented: “We are continually looking for opportunities for children to see the diversity in the adult community around them.”
Sandy Cormier, Literacy Week organizer and CSDC toddler teacher, noted, “The full week of activities focused our attention on the children’s growing capacity to understand and use language and literacy as powerful tools to make sense of the world around them.”
The CSDC is the nationally recognized laboratory school program of the Family Studies Department serving 122 children and their families, with support from the College of Health and Human Services. This year the center is celebrating 80 years of providing UNH students and faculty with opportunities to learn about and research young children.