Students at Frontier Middle School in Eagle Mountain are advancing their writing skills by writing Children’s Books for a Lehi Elementary School. Megan Cudworth teaches Creative Writing to the students of Frontier Elementary School.
Cudworth explains the goal of the project, “With limited time in our semester-long creative writing class, I want my students try a variety of writing styles and projects. We build up their skills from writing shorter texts to longer, more complex texts, eventually getting to the point where students will plan out and start a novel, taking the challenge to make a word goal for a month and write consistently every day throughout the month in the style of National Novel Writing Month.”
Cudworth continues, “We spend several days at the beginning of the unit exploring the genre, reading lots of children’s books, identifying what qualities they have in common, and learning about basic plot structure. While we prepare in our classroom, I send surveys over to Lehi Elementary School. The 5th graders visit their 1st grade buddies and help them answer questions on the survey so that we know a little more about each child to tailor their books specifically to them.”
“I’m thrilled to have partnered with teachers at Lehi Elementary School so my students can have real audience to focus on while they work. My students have the opportunity to brainstorm story ideas, organize their ideas onto plot diagrams and storyboards, type up the finished product, and add hand-drawn or digital pictures. The stories need to include the 1st grader as a main character, and it should also work in some details about the child. Their favorite food, things they like to do, something they think is funny, etc. This is all for a real audience: children who are beyond excited to have a book made especially for them. We will get the books printed, bound, and delivered to the 1st graders at Lehi Elementary School.”
The program has a lot of benefits to the Students and the Community. Cudworth explains how this project is beneficial to those involved.
For My Students:
One of the biggest motivators for student writers is real audiences. Writing these children’s books gives my students purpose to practice and polish their creative writing skills.For the Elementary School Students:
The way this project is designed promotes a culture of reading. It shows kids of all ages that books are cool. Lehi Elementary 5th graders visit the 1st graders again when the books are finished and read the books with them. Not every young student has a book collection at home. With this project, each child is guaranteed a book that now belongs to them that they can take home and keep. It’s so important for those first graders to see that they have a place in the world of books.For the Community:
We can all benefit from more of a focus on reading and writing. It is such an amazing things for these children, spanning ages 5 to 15, to connect over their love of stories. This project creates a culture of literacy and creativity that spans across cities.
Cudworth’s little sister participated in a program like this when she was in a High School creative writing class. She saw the benefit that it gave her sister, and wanted to give her students the same experience. Her little sister felt light a real writer when she received a thank you letter from the little girl she wrote her children’s book for.
Jolene Elison is the fifth grade teacher at Lehi Elementary School that has students that work with the 1st graders to get the information for Middle School class.
Elison explains how it the project works for her fifth grade students.
My fifth graders loved doing this project because one of their language arts core requirements is to learn to conduct an interview. It is fun for them to go down and interview the little first graders. They ask them about all the interest survey questions on the handout and then they talk to them some more and write down other tidbits that they learned like what they like to watch on tv and who their friends are in the classroom. The first graders learn to formulate their thoughts and communicate.
Then when the books are finished by the Middle School Writers we take down the books to the first grade classes and my students sit with their book buddy and read aloud the story. Each time they come to the little child’s name they let the 1st grader say it orally. Also any other words that the first grader can do on their own. After the reading they talk about what was their favorite parts. Often the little kids ask them to read it again. At the end of the day some of the first grade teachers put all the books in a basket as one of their reading centers for the week. Then the other kids can look at all of the books. Finally at the end of the week the individual students get to take their special book home with them. It is a big hit with the parents and many parents say that they want to read the book with their name in it over and over again.
We are not a title 1 school but we do have a lot of need in our school population so I love that this project gets books into the hands of children. It is super important to get print materials into the hands of early readers. The more words they are exposed to at an early age can help them to become much better readers.
Additional Resources
Frontier Middle School
Lehi Elementary School
Mike Kieffer – Editor-in-Chief, Cedar Valley Sentinel
Mike Kieffer is a dynamic leader and community advocate based in Eagle Mountain, Utah. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Cedar Valley Sentinel, a local publication dedicated to informing, inspiring, and elevating the Cedar Valley community through honest and accurate journalism. With a passion for fostering connections, Kieffer has made it his mission to highlight local businesses, provide reliable news, and support community development.
Beyond his editorial role, Kieffer is the owner of Lake Mountain Media, LLC, a company specializing in media and communications, and the co-owner of Quail Run Farms, which focuses on sustainable farming and community engagement. He also actively contributes to the local economy and culture as a member of the Eagle Mountain Chamber of Commerce.
Kieffer’s dedication extends to preserving and promoting the history and heritage of the Cedar Valley area. He often participates in community-centered events and media, including podcasts that explore the unique aspects of life in the region. Through his varied endeavors, he remains a steadfast advocate for the growth and enrichment of the local community.