Reece's school's main emphasis on learning is project based learning. Each quarter Reece's grade has a huge project they focus on. The first quarter they learned all about books. They started their investigation of books on a field trip to a bookstore. They learned everything from the contents of a book (such as the table of contents, the dedication page, and the copyright date), how the author comes up with the thoughts for a book, how to price a book so it will sale, how to market a book, how a book is edited, published and sold. After learning all these things, the kids got to experience for themselves what they learned. They became authors and started writing books, editing them, illustrating, publishing and selling them. In art class they designed the jacket cover of their books, in music class they came up with jingles to sell/market their books, in drama they made puppets of characters in their books, in literature they wrote their books, in grammar they proofread their books and edited them, and in math class they learned the value of money so they could price their books and sell their books. Many subjects were covered in this project from Math, Literature, Reading, Grammar, Economics, Marketing, Spelling, Art, and Business. The kids had a blast and learned so much. At the end of the quarter it was time to become best selling authors. The parents were invited to the "Project Celebration" where the kids had turned their gym into a "First Grade Bookstore" and we were able to observe all they learned. The gym was broken up into sections of a bookstore and all the first graders played a role in the bookstore (book locators, managers of the bookstore, authors that were doing book signings and book readings, book shelf stockers, cashiers, baggers, and UPS delivery people). The Kindergarteners came to the bookstore and browsed and bought books with fake money. The Kindergarteners actually got to keep the books they "bought." After all the Kindergarteners were done buying books, the parents were able to buy books with "real" money which would go to the school's library. Reece had written 4 books and I was hoping to buy some of them but only 1 was left. Reece went and told her teacher that she was not able to buy many of her books because they were gone and Ms. Hill replied, "well you are just a best selling author!!!" It made Reece feel so special instead of sad that she did not get many of her own books. It was such a neat event and one I know that will last in Reece's memory forever. On top of this being a great project, Reece's love for reading and books has escalated and she is really progressing with her reading now. Since her last report card, she has advanced 2 reading levels in a very short period of time. Great job Reece!!
"First Grade Bookstore"
Reece's role was in the "Author's Corner" reading a book.
This was one of the cutest bookstore managers (see boy in tie). He played his role very well and took it very seriously. Tony said he needs to hire this kid for his store.
Reece waiting in line to get an autograph.
Tony is browsing the books looking for Reece's book. Check out the boy's face sneaking a peak at Tony's Chick-fil-A nametag. Funny story, while Tony was browsing one of the "store managers" came up to him and said, "Excuse me, can you come with me?" He took Tony all the way across the gym by the "check out counters" and told Tony, "We are not selling enough books, you need to go get the word out for people to buy more books." Tony was in awe of these little kids who were "playing managers." It is amazing he did not take all of them back to his store that day.
