Orcas Christian School has an annual spring tradition called Author’s Tea. K-8 students prepare for it for several weeks, writing books of their own complete with graphs, photos, and illustrations in order to share their completed manuscripts with each other, parents, and community members on an appointed day of the year.
Yesterday was that day, and the elements couldn’t have aligned better. We haven’t had many sunny days for months, and yesterday’s sky was glorious all afternoon. Tents were set up over tables for each class’s books at the basketball court, and various fruits, veggies, and goodies adorned another long table.
All students, including high schoolers, congregated outside in order to disperse among the tables and take the time to read as many books as possible. In the back of each book is always a comments page so that every reader can leave their thoughts after finishing the book.
At 2:30, parents, friends, and community members got their chance to peruse the selection of books and read as many as possible, which ranged from biographies about Jane Goodall, Kim Jong Un, and JK Rowling to descriptions of chickens’ lives and technofuturistic novellas.
It is such a fun day every year. I think I could stay there for about four or five hours. They even had acoustic guitar accompaniment by senior Cadence Kraayeveld. He and fellow senior Satine Tyree have attended 13 Author’s Teas through the years since kindergarten.
It was so sweet! I loved how creative the stories were. What a lovely tradition!