St. Agnes First-Graders Celebrate Literacy

First grade students of St. Agnes Cathedral School recently celebrated their love of literacy by embarking upon a unique "Create a Book" project.

Their journey began in the St. Agnes library and media center which contains more than 10,550 books. Tapping into their life experiences, the students completed a graphic organizer for their stories focusing on the creation of characters, setting and plot design.

The project continued with the assistance of parent volunteers who met with the students on a one to one basis and guided them through completing the process of formulating ideas and writing them down into a finished product, resulting in a bound book.

With the help of their computer teacher, Mrs. Brower by using the computer program Kidpix, the students also created digital illustrations for their books.

The final literacy celebration commenced with a school visit from Elizabeth Uhlig a published author and illustrator. Uhlig explained the process of bookmaking from the beginning to the final stages of printing of her books in China. She showed the students the vast variety of techniques that she uses to create her books’ illustrations including needlepoint, cut-paper collages and fine water color portraits. She brought her original art work to share with the first graders. It was a perfect way to complete their literacy journey.