Artist & Poet Author Workshops for Schools, Libraries, Youth Programs with Ron & Amy Schmidt

Artist and Author Visit for School, Library, Summer Youth Programs

Loose Leashes (Random House), Dog-Gone School (Random House), Back to Dog-Gone School (Random House)

For over 10 years, Amy and Ron Schmidt have enjoyed sharing their love of poetry and dog-centric photography in fun and interactive workshops, providing children with the opportunity to explore their own creative ideas.

Ron and Amy's workshops highlight the creative process, idea generation and creation, and how pictures and poetry come together to form stories.

Program Descriptions

K – 1st Grades

Program Length Per Session: 30-45 minutes

Ron introduces several of his fun dog characters and asks the children for help in creatively naming them. Amy reads poems from her collection, focusing on simple rhyming schemes and poetry forms that include end rhymes, acrostic poems, haikus, shape poems, and onomatopoeia. Together, Ron and Amy end the session by leading the class through the creation of a class poem using one of Ron’s images as inspiration. At the end of the session, students are provided with their own idea journals and teachers are provided with several of Ron's photos to keep for inspiration and teaching.

2nd - 5th Grades

Program Length Per Session: 50 minutes

Ron and Amy tailor their programs to a grade-appropriate discussion on the creative process; their use of an idea/writer's notebooks, collecting and sparking ideas, word choice, revision, editing, and poetry forms.

Ron begins with a discussion on how his ideas become photos and then leads the children through an interactive exercise on character creation. Amy discusses how she creates stories and poems from Ron’s images/characters and shares several different poetic forms from their books which include ballads, haikus, question poems, onomatopoeia, and end rhymes. The session ends with each student creating a picture and/or poem using one of Ron’s images as inspiration.

Rates:

These are approximate rates, adjusted to the needs of the school/class size and whether the visit will be done in person or virtually. They do not include travel/lodging.

• 1/2 Day Sessions - usually comprising of two workshops: $800.00
• Full-Day Sessions with a break for lunch - usually comprising of 4 workshops: $1200.00

Ideally, presentations are given to an entire grade, one to two classes at a time, versus a large, general presentation.

Additional Information

Presentations are flexible, and specific learning themes can be incorporated into their discussion.

For information on pricing and scheduling a visit, please contact Amy Schmidt at as@looseleashes.com or 732-737-4526

To see Ron’s entire collection of dog art photography, please visit www.looseleashes.com