When We Grow Up – A new book by the kindergarten students
By Angela Rogalski
The Bolivar Bullet
Kindergarten is a special time in a child’s life; a time when they’re learning and growing exponentially each and every day. Recently, a teacher and her assistant at H.M. Nailor Elementary School provided a way to accelerate that natural curiosity children have by encouraging them to write and publish their very own book.
Kindergarten teacher Lauren Auerswald and her assistant teacher Laura SiFuentes discovered a website for teachers and students that sparks interest in writing and publishing their own stories into a book.
“Our students have been learning about different jobs within their community,” said Auerswald. “And, what they can do when they grow up. It’s never too early to start thinking about their futures and to give them goals to strive for. I had received an email from a fellow teacher about a website that offers different classroom book projects to students. The website is called Studentreasures and they provide teachers and schools with a hands-on writing activity that motivates students to write and inspires students to learn by turning their stories into professionally bound books.”
Twenty-one students in Auerswald and SiFuentes’ class participated in writing a book titled “When We Grow Up” and it’s scheduled to be published very soon.
“We just thought this would be a great project and some wonderful memorabilia for the students to have when they left our classroom,” said Auerswald. “And, it’s a great way for students to learn about writing and tied in wonderfully with the lessons we had been learning. So, I signed us up and we received the trial kit from them and we got started.”
Each of the 21 students participating started out with the prompt line: “When I Grow Up I Want To Be __________” and they went over all the jobs that the students had been discussing.
“Once they filled in the blank with what they wanted to be, such as “When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Farmer” as one student wrote, they then provided the reason why they wanted to pursue that profession, “Because I Want To Plant Flowers,” Auerswald said. “The book was a three week process and along with the writing, the students also drew a picture of what they thought they would look like working in their chosen profession. So we not only had their writing, we had their art work as well. It was a wonderful project and the children were so excited about it and just loved doing it.”
“And, they were very excited about the fact that they would actually get the book back,” she added. “That they would have something they could hold onto forever. The books will come to the school and parents received a form to fill out to order their students’ copy of the book. Many parents went on and purchased the book, but they do have the option of getting them later if for some reason they didn’t get the form or couldn’t order at that time. Everyone had their picture taken because on the back of the book it reads “Meet The Authors” so all the students that participated are featured. It was so much fun and so exciting for the students and just a great learning experience.”