Thursday marked the start of a special project the children in the Yellows and Greens (2nd/3rd grades) at the Hilltown Cooperative Charter School in Haydenville, Massachusetts, will be working on from now until the end of the school year. King, their Bright Spot Reading Buddy, will be the focal point, offering encouragement and inspiration. This project will enable the students to be highly engaged in an integrated unit around dogs involving writing, art, and music.
King loves spending time with the children. I so enjoy watching the interaction between King and the children when he arrives in the classroom. His eyes brighten, his tail wags, and he smiles his doggie-smile as he gently receives lots of hugs and petting.
The project started with interviews in both the Greens and Yellows classroom. Before the interviews took place on Thursday, the two classroom teachers, Nancy Childs and Paula Yolles, taught a lesson on interviewing skills. Children were grouped in pairs and came up with questions to ask King about his life. The class reviewed the questions together to eliminate duplication. The notes each pair of students wrote down at King’s formal interview will generate a narrative about King. The genre will be open: Poetry, Fiction or Non-fiction stories, but the subject will be dogs.
This coming Tuesday (and the Tuesday to follow), King will be brought to art class as a live subject for drawing and/or painting! This work will be used for illustrations in books that the children will publish. This special project around dogs will also be incorporated into the music classes through songs, dance and musical instruments.
The project will culminate in two publishing parties: An informal publishing party where students can bring a “stuffed dog” and share their books or poems with a younger class. King will be invited, of course. A formal publishing party will be held with parents.
I love being back in the classroom after so many years. It’s a joy to see children so excited about learning. King and I are going to have a great time with this project.