Author Visits

Kari-Lynn's interactive "how-to" presentations and workshops are both informative and lively. She can highlight themes such as social-emotional learning, math, literacy, STEAM, nature, or equity. As a Full Professor, seasoned performer, and award-winning author, Dr. Winters understands that authors not only play with words but also use rhythms, art, and movement to bring their stories to life. From her unique position, Kari-Lynn provides engaging, unforgettable experiences for audiences of all ages, including take-away strategies for literacy, education, and artful practice.

Presentations & Workshops

Be You! Everyone Else Is Taken.

  • Managing emotions, getting along with others, and establishing a sense of identity and belonging are key components of social-emotional learning. In this lively and informative presentation, with the help of Kari-Lynn’s picture books, students or adults will actively (and artfully) explore key concepts of social-emotional learning to foster positive environments, build tolerance and empathy for others, and to participate in active listening. Here, Kari-Lynn will not only read books that she has authored but will demonstrate arts- based techniques such as pop-up story, puppetry, and role play to delight young children or to inspire adults.

    This presentation features Kari-Lynn’s books: Stinky Skunk Mel, Just Bea, On the Line, and What if I’m Not a Cat?

  • Audience

    • ELKP/JK/SK and Primary

    • (Adult workshops for elementary school teachers, early childhood educators, counsellors, or librarians are also available.)

    Type

    • Face To Face

    • 40 - 50 Minutes

    • Theme: Social Emotional Learning

Moving With Math

  • During this interactive and engaging presentation students will use movement, storytelling, rhythms, improvisation, and fingerplays to build understandings of math concepts such as comparing and adding whole numbers, skip counting, measuring time, predicting patterns, and recognizing ordinal numbers. T

    This presentation features Kari-Lynn’s books: aRHYTHMetic and Hungry for Math.

  • Audience

    • ELKP/JK/SK and Primary

    Type

    • Face To Face or Virtual Presentation

    • 30 - 40 Minutes

    • Theme: Numeracy and Math

ACTion Packed

  • As a professor of literacy and drama education, Kari-Lynn knows that picture books involve a synergy of words, illustrations, and performance. Aims for this presentation include exploring interACTive stage-to-the-page writing strategies that help students structure a plot, develop better dialogue, bring voice to a narrative, and captivate an audience.

    These tailor-made (you can choose from any of the books Kari-Lynn has written), hands-on sessions are both educational and engaging. They include readings from her books and plays, puppets, songs, visuals, strategies for reading comprehension/writing composition and drama, props, and a question period.

  • Audience

    • Primary / Junior

    • (Adult workshops for elementary school teachers, authors, and librarians are also available.)

    Type

    • Face To Face or Virtual Presentation

    • 50 Minutes

    • Theme: Becoming a better writer through active composition strategies.

Nonfiction About Nature

  • Nonfiction writing requires focus, organization, and appeal. Not only will Kari-Lynn share nature’s wonders and facts as she reads and performs her informational books, but she’ll also demonstrate how children, youth, and adults can think about and organize their writing in order to make nature’s real occurrences appealing, lively, gross, and interesting for audiences of all ages. This presentation features information about insects, pollination, and parasites.

    Kari-Lynn’s nonfiction books, articles, and poems will be highlighted: Buzz About Bees, Bite into Bloodsuckers, and Zoom In on Zombies (in press, 2024).

  • Audience

    • Junior/ Intermediate

    • (Adult workshops for elementary school teachers, authors, and librarians are also available.)

    Type

    • Face to Face or Virtual Workshop/Presentation

    • 50 Minutes

    • Theme: Pollination and Parasites; Writing Non-Fiction Texts.

Reading Through The Seasons

  • Delving into the changing of the seasons, weather patterns, and the joys of playing seasonal sports, this interactive presentation aims to inspire children to discover a love of reading. Specifically, this fun-filled presentation will give children opportunities to infer information, read together, engage in active phonetic play, sing songs, and discover fun facts about the natural world.

    Here, Kari-Lynn will highlight several of the engaging and informative books that she has written on this topic: On My Walk, On My Swim, On My Bike, On My Skis, No Matter-What-Friend, Runaway Alphabet, and Let’s Play a Hockey Game.

  • Audience

    • ELKP/JK/SK and Primary

    Type

    • Face To Face or Virtual Presentation

    • 30 - 40 Minutes

    • Theme: Seasons, Reading Skills

Full STEAM Ahead!

  • 21st Century authorship for children, when coupled with STEAM literacies, requires out-of-the box thinking and authors who aren't afraid to question, hypothesize, and re-imagine. STEAM-focused inquiry is highlighted in this captivating primary/junior grade workshop. Students will have hands-on opportunities to connect to literacy and other disciplines (e.g., science, technology, engineering, arts, math), while acting, singing, and actively exploring poems and non-fiction books.

    Drawing on Kari-Lynn’s research in STEAM literacies, this presentation can be modified for adults, demonstrating best practices for elementary educators and their classes.

    It features Kari-Lynn’s books: aRHYTHMetic, Hungry for Math, Hungry for Science, Hungry for the Arts, Buzz About Bees, and Bite into Bloodsuckers.

  • Audience

    • Primary / Junior

    • (Adult workshops for elementary school teachers, and librarians are also available.)

    Type

    • Face To Face or Virtual Presentation

    • 50 Minutes

    • Theme: STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math)

Keep’em Laughing!

  • Humour is a tremendous tool for writers. When done well, it can make stories more memorable and engaging. In this workshop, award-winning children’s author, Kari-Lynn Winters, will draw on her theatrical background and her own books (as well as the writing of others) to demonstrate concrete ways student can hone their humour and keep their audiences giggling.

    This presentation features Kari-Lynn’s books: Jeffrey and Sloth, When Chickens Fly, and What If I am NOT a Cat?

  • Audience

    • Junior/Intermediate

    • (Adult workshops for elementary school teachers, authors, and librarians are also available.)

    Type

    • Face to Face or Virtual Workshop/Presentation

    • 50 Minutes

    • Theme: Writing Humour

Literacy Leaps

  • From snappy beginnings to twisted endings, invite the reader to imagine, wonder, and question. Build authentic protagonists and antagonists. Discover a character’s goals. Explore the cadence of the language. Create images in the readers’ minds. These are writing concepts that many young authors grapple with, regardless of genre. This exciting, informational literacy workshop demonstrates the tools students can use to make their writing leap off the page. 

    This presentation features Kari-Lynn’s books: Bad Pirate, Jeffrey and Sloth, Gift Days, French Toast and Best Pirate.

  • Audience

    • Junior/Intermediate

    • (Adult workshops for elementary school teachers, authors, and librarians are also available.)

    Type

    • Face to Face or Virtual Workshop/Presentation

    • 50 Minutes

    • Theme: Literacy

Author Visits in Action

This highlight video was created by Janet Krzeczkowski, a fabulous videographer.

Visit: https://vimeo.com/user11381130 for more of her videos.

Pricing

Full Session

$295.00 (excluding mileage) for a 50-minute full session (Max Audience: 300)

Half Session

$175.00 (excluding mileage) for a 30-minute half session (only available for pre-k, kindergarten, and primary students) (Max Audience: 150)

Discounts available for addition sessions or for confirmed referrals.

Testimonials

  • "A teacher workshop with Kari-Lynn Winters is lively, fun, and full of fresh ideas. I have left her workshops with many strategies to support my students’ literacy through storybooks, drama, and games. She demonstrates how a teacher can make children active participants in classroom literacy experiences. I am so glad that Kari introduced me to her delightful children’s book Jeffrey and Sloth. This humorous story highlights our power to create wonderful stories with our drawings and writing. It is a must have book for any early childhood or primary classroom. I highly recommend her teacher workshop to any school, and would love to have her back at mine."

    David Johnson, Teacher, Ivy Montessori School (Vancouver, BC)

  • "One of our best author visits!"

    Becky Pendleton, Teacher-librarian, Ferris Elementary

  • "Kari Winters is an outstanding author whose ideas really resonate with children, making children’s learning feel relevant and purposeful to them. Whether she is writing about the struggle for writing topics in Jeffrey and Sloth, or giving children an easy way to remember math concepts through rhythmic poems in aRHYTHMetic, she relates to students and makes them feel that they too can accomplish their dreams one day."

    Amanda Vine, Grade 2 Teacher, Clemens Mill Public School (Cambridge)

  • "From the moment Kari-Lynn took the floor, she didn’t disappoint. She captivated the minds and ears of both the preschool-to-primary children and their parents with ease, taking us from one imaginative setting to the next through songs, finger plays and puppets. She showed great intuition – she always seemed to know just when the children needed to stand up and move around or needed more visual stimulation or interaction, which greatly helped to keep the children engaged and focused. And her quick wit and welcoming nature allowed her to quickly and calmly respond to all the incessant questions/comments thrown at her from the very inquisitive audience."

    Mary Jo Wagner, Freelance writer, editor, media consultant (Vancouver)

  • "Kari-Lynn’s energy and enthusiasm were infectious. Her creativity and dedication to the craft of children’s literature were inspiring. And I really appreciated her patience and graciousness with the organizers and the children alike."

    Raymond Nakamura, Ph.D., President, Dunbar Memorial Preschool (Vancouver)