Second graders publish book
A group of second graders at Rogers Elementary School in Waterloo recently did something most adults have not done.
The students became published authors.
βItβs great because we all wrote it and weβre just kids,β Emma Newsome said while smiling the entire time.
The children are students in Tommy Smithβs class at the school.
Each year, they complete a writing project called βIf… I was trapped in a snow globe.β
Smith decided to take that project up a notch this year after being inspired by another teacher.
βWe wanted to do a little more and actually write a book,β he said.
In the book, which has the same title as the assignment, each student was responsible for two pages.
On one page, the students wrote about what they would do if they were trapped in a snow globe. On another page, they illustrated their story.
The assignment, which took about two weeks, was one of the longer ones for students.
That work was all worth it, however, when Smith decided to get the studentsβ book published through StudentTreasures Publishing.
βItβs a long, drawn-out process, but it was worth it when we got the book,β Smith said.
The students, who were extremely enthusiastic for the book, agreed with that assessment.
βThey were really excited,β Smith said. βI kept telling them βthe books are going to be here, the books are going to be here.β And when we got them yesterday they were just so excited to see them.β
With books in hand, the students had a number of reasons why they enjoyed the project so much.
βItβs cool,β Rachel Eller said. βI get to see my face in my own book.β
βIt makes me happy because Iβm an author,β Kamden Kaufman added.
βI like it,β Olvia Kaminski agreed.
Other students saw this as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
βItβs fame and fortune,β Ryan Gagliardi said.
βI like it because Iβm going to show my parents,β Leona Mercer said.
Other students simply enjoyed seeing their time and effort pay off.
βItβs great because I could write (and illustrate) my own pages,β Aiden Myers said.
βItβs awesome because of all the hard work I did,β Ryland Sides seconded.
The students plan to read their book to another class in the school, but for the most part only their friends and family will be able to read it because there are only enough copies for Smithβs pupils.
Smith can order more, but he said the book has already paid dividends for him as a teacher.
βYou take a lot of pride in their work, seeing how hard they work on it,β he explained. βThe excitement and the hard work made it all worth it when they saw the finished product.β