Back in October, Trevilians Elementary School third grade teacher Jessica Mehlhaff found herself looking for a unique way to teach her students what parts of speech such as synonyms and antonyms are. She wanted a lesson plan that would be educational, challenging, and most importantly, fun.
It’s safe to say Mehlhaff was successful on all three counts.
On Friday, January 25th, 12 Trevilians Elementary School students officially became published authors!
As part of her lesson, Mehlhaff had students write and illustrate their own books! The only requirement was that the book featured several words that were synonyms, and several that were antonyms. Once completed, Mehlhaff had the books printed and professionally bound.
Then, on Friday, the real magic occurred. The library at TES was transformed into a showcase room for the 12 students. They were given the spotlight to read their book to their fellow students. Afterwards, the newly-published authors autographed copies of their books and distributed them to their fellow classmates, many of which grabbed them with outstretched arms and big grins.
Mehlhaff also invited the family members of each author to attend the session, many of which posed for photos with their new author afterwards.
For Mehlhaff, the session was a fitting conclusion to weeks of hard work by the students.
“I’m so proud,” Mehlhaff said. “The first time they read through their books, I had tears in my eyes, because they had worked so hard. I wanted to give them the recognition they deserved.”
Mehlhaff’s new group of authors were able to take home a few extra copies of their books to share with friends and family. They also had their names added to the school’s revered Wall of Fame.
This was Mehlhaff’s first time using this unique approach to teach her students lessons in grammar.
And with how it went, it likely won’t be the last.
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