School PresentationsMrs. Pilegard offers up to three assembly or classroom presentations per day for elementary grades. A maximum of 30 students is suggested for hands-on demonstrations and creative writing workshops, and up to 200 students for storytelling with overhead projection. Each presentation is approximately 40 minutes long. An additional question-and-answer session for 20 students or less will be provided upon request. Assembly Format: Assembly presentations include storytelling, photographs and historical facts about the Tang Dynasty culture of China using colorful transparencies on an overhead projector. Mrs. Pilegard has traveled to China and has done extensive research for her books. In her presentations she discusses research techniques and the creative process as well as mathematics concepts. The format is adaptable for grades K-8
Classroom Presentation Format: Classroom presentations consist of storytelling and a math craft for groups of 30 and under, grades K-8. The Warlord’s Puzzle
The Warlord’s Fish The Warlord’s Puppeteers The Warlord’s Kites The Warlord’s Messengers Students gain a rich understanding of marking the passage of time by creating a "water alarm clock" and an analog clock face. Honorarium and Expenses Mrs. Pilegard’s honorarium is $800.00 per day. Fees for other types of events should be discussed directly with the author. There is no charge for a book-signing event only; however, some expenses may apply. The costs of travel, meals, and lodging are the responsibility of the hosting organization. Fifty-cents per mile is charged for reasonable driving distances from Wishon, California. Air or train fare is required for longer distances. Book Sales Many children will want to purchase copies of Mrs. Pilegard’s books. Pelican Publishing Company offers a 40-percent discount to organizations hosting an author event. Book orders are done on a consignment basis and Pelican’s event plan is easy and convenient to use. Contact Information For more information about booking Virginia Walton Pilegard for an event, please contact: Caitlin Smith – School Sales Manager Pelican Publishing Company1000 Burmaster St. To contact Mrs. Pilegard directly: vwpilegard@gmail.com |
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Inspirational PresentationsExploring the topics of prayer, victorious living and faith through adversity, Virginia Pilegard has spoken for such diverse Christian groups as Women’s Aglow and Fire Fighters for Christ. Honorarium for church related groups: $100.00 per one-hour presentation, $200.00 - $400.00 per day. The costs of travel, meals and lodging are the responsibility of the hosting organization. Contact Virginia regarding possible discounts for small groups and special circumstances. For additional information visit Virginia’s Speaker Page at ChristianSpeaker.net |
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FOR TEACHERSPelican Publishing Company has Virginia’s complimentary study guides for the first five books of the Warlord’s series at the following web addresses: The Warlord’s Kites The Warlord’s Beads The Warlord’s Puzzle
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1. Have you ever heard skateboarders talk about “doing a one-eighty” or a “three-sixty” and wondered what the numbers meant? 2. Using your craft from The Warlord’s Fish, mark the four compass points and the corresponding degrees of a circle on the top, bottom and two sides of the rim of the bowl. 3. If you face north and then turn 180º, what direction are you facing? If you turn 360º what direction are you facing? Now the question is, where did you leave your skateboard? |
Expand the Counting Frame Craft at the back of
The Warlord’s Beads to consider a different Number Base
The Chinese discovered a decimal system similar to our own. Base ten or decimal counting uses the number symbols zero through nine. We just keep counting from one to nine and then starting over! 1. To count using the counting frame craft in The Warlord’s Beads, begin with all the Cheerios® at the bottom of the frame. Move one Cheerio up on the one’s column (the rightmost) as you count each successive number in order through nine. 2. Now, push down all the Cheerios in the one’s column (rightmost), push one Cheerio® to the top of ten’s column (the middle column). You now have zero in the one’s column and one in the ten’s column. 3. Count 11, 12, 13 . . . by pushing up one Cheerio at a time in the one’s column . . . 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 . . . and now it’s time to start over again! Two Cheerios in the ten’s column and no Cheerios (or zero) in the one’s column represents 20. Easy! 21, 22, 23, 24 and on and on until you start over with one in the hundred’s column (leftmost). 4. Look at the chart below to see what would happen if we used base two instead. |
| Decimal or Base 10 | Binary or Base 2 |
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 10 |
| 3 | 11 |
| 4 | 100 |
| 5 | 101 |
| 6 | 110 |
| 7 | 111 |
| 8 | 1000 |
| 9 | 1001 |
| 10 | 1010 |
| 11 | 1011 |
| 12 | 1100 |
| 13 | 1101 |
| 14 | 1110 |
Use The Warlord’s Beads Craft Counting Frame to Add!
1. Always start with all the Cheerios® at the bottom of the frame. It’s easy to add small numbers by pushing up Cheerios. To add 4 + 1 push 4 Cheerios up in the one’s column; then push up 1 more. 2. It’s a little trickier with larger numbers. If you want to add 9 + 9 on your counting frame, first push 9 Cheerios to the top of the one’s column. How can you add 9 more? You’re almost out of Cheerios in the one’s column! Think, what number taken away from 10 = 9? The answer is 1, so push 1 Cheerio to the top of the middle column (the ten’s column) and take 1 Cheerio away from the one’s column on the right. Now you have 1 in the ten’s column and 8 in the one’s column. That equals 18. How about adding 8 + 8? Start by pushing up 8 Cheerios in the one’s column. Did you push 1 Cheerio up in the ten’s column and push 2 Cheerios down in the one’s column? If you did, you have the correct answer and you can come up with lots more addition equations to solve!! |
BONUS FOR QUILTERS!
Shortly after The Warlord's Puzzle appeared in 2000, master quilter Patricia Rosa of upstate New York designed the following tangram quilt pattern for Mrs. Pilegard. The colors, textures and shapes of traditional quilts tempt children to explore informal geometry. Hand sewing pre-cut blocks for a tangram quilt allows children to strengthen visual perception skills and make the vocabulary of geometry part of their everyday thought and speech. Touching, arranging, and sewing plane geometric figures helps prepare children for Euclidean geometry.
Layout of Mrs. Pilegard's Tangram Quilt
Click here for Pat's Pattern for the Tangram Quilt
(PDF file)
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The Author at a Christmas Tea Immanuel Lutheran Church, Easton, California |
Consider an Author’s Tea or Luncheon for your next Women’s Ministry Event!
Virginia Walton Pilegard, an experienced Christian speaker, offers a unique way to tell the “Old-Old-Story” through her writing and her presentations. Known for her series of mathematical adventure picture books, she now turns to mystery-romance for grown-ups. Writer’s Information Network founder Elaine Wright Colvin describes Virginia’s stories as “light-hearted reading for the thinking woman.” French Creek, the fictional setting for her novels, is based on the little foothill community where she was raised. Virginia writes with sensitivity for accurate portrayal of Native American culture learned from her mother Helen Walton, one of the founding members of California Indian Education.
“The Way of The Lion”
Manuscript represented by literary agent Pam Strickler
www.pamstrickler.com
Anglo pastor’s daughter Sunny English and her Native American sweetheart Caleb Wilder, become unwilling investigators into the death of a neighboring rancher. Naive, optimistic Sunny believes Erle Pitman’s death is an accident. Caleb suspects murder. Their budding romance reaches a similar impasse. Caleb yearns to flee French Creek, their small foothill town. He thinks accepting Sunny’s Christianity would be a betrayal of his Indian heritage. As the two uncover a brutal murderer and discover love, both Sunny and Caleb must confront the reality of Jesus, Risen Son of the “Unknown Being of the East,” whom Caleb’s ancestors revered. Native American religious traditions help to bring the hero to Christianity and a hunted mountain lion foreshadows the Lion of Judah.
“Coyote Warrior”
Character sketch of hero Joseph Brant from unfinished manuscript:
Joseph Brant comes to French Creek by court order, remanded to his grandparents’ control after his arrest for a DUI and illegal discharge of a firearm. Although raised with little understanding of his Indian heritage and a wild streak a yard wide, he gains respect in the community as a crack firefighter with the local Native American Hot Shot Crew. His meeting with powwow fancy-shawl dancer Connie Blue changes everything.
In his words:
She’s into the Christian stuff and doesn’t claim a spirit animal, but if she did, it’d have to be a lion. Her big eyes turn up at the corners like a modern-day relative of Genghis Khan or a lion. Her face is a heart with wide cheekbones and a broad forehead. Only her gentle mouth gives away her innocence. The first time I saw her I knew she was my past—the tribe I’d never known; my future—mother to my unborn; my present—the fire I’d never put out. The stuff I’d worked on every female since I was old enough to smile makes her wary. She watches me though, stares at my hands when I play my guitar for her.
Joseph Brant—wild and sweet and dangerous as the late summer honey tree—God has looked for someone to stand in the gap for you and found Constance Blue.
Presentations
Honorarium for church related groups $100.00 per one-hour presentation. The costs of travel, meals and lodging are the responsibility of the hosting organization.
Contact Virginia Walton Pilegard at vwpilegard@gmail.com
The Warlord’s Beads
Virginia compares her lifetime of miracle answers to prayer to the woodpecker pecking on a telephone pole when lightening strikes and demolishes the pole. “That bird flies away chirping, ‘Look at the power I have in my beak!’ When God answered my prayers for my impossible prodigal family, and my equally impossible dream of becoming a published author, I wanted to say, ‘Look at the power I have in my prayers!’ Instead, I’m honor bound to tell of my long-suffering, compassionate Savior who hears and answers again and again.”