By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
For those wanting a crash course on topics ranging from a galaxy tucked in the constellation Virgo, axolotls or animal habitats, last Thursday’s Ophir Elementary School event may have been the opportunity.
Ophir Elementary School held its first-ever “Everyone’s an Author” event showcasing research, nonfiction writing and illustrating by kindergarteners through fifth graders. On the heels of a March 17 Read Across America event, where Lone Peak High School ninth graders shared their love of reading with elementary students, the author event was another way to enhance multi-age group collaboration. Principal Brittany Shirley explained that the event also invites families into the school and encourages students to take pride in their independent work.
“We talk to them about being mathematicians and we talk to them about being scientists,” Shirley told EBS ahead of the event. “I think it’s great that we get to put them in the place of, ‘you are an author, everybody’s an author,’ and that they get to take pride in their work.”
To prepare, Ophir Elementary invited Montana-based author Precious McKenzie to speak with students. She explained her writing process, how long it takes to write and how to coordinate illustrations in her stories. Her work includes books like “Nest” and “Cinderyeti.”
Students selected their category from a list of options including habitats, earth science and weather, outer space and planets, dinosaurs, biographies and animals—which was the most popular with 160 authors choosing to write about creatures. They formed a research question and then learned how to source their findings beyond a Google search.
“We have Gale In Context, which is a database that we have through our library. And so, kids use that,” Shirley said. “They also use books and World Book Online to collect facts about their topic.”
Shirley was happy to see that research discussions went beyond the classroom, with students sharing their research questions at lunch with friends. Once the students completed research, they worked on their nonfiction stories, with teachers editing along the way.
Parents, students and teachers journeyed through the hallways on the morning of March 20, visiting classrooms dedicated to the Jurassic period, outer space and animals. In each room, students shared their work with classmates, younger students and parents in attendance. The busyness is a change from when pandemic limitations hindered bustling school events.
”One of our things is trying to get families back into the building … that’s sure changed since COVID,” Shirley said, noting that the event was an opportunity to “celebrate the students and get families on campus.”
