NOVEMBER 19, 2009 ISSUE
Pancake Breakfast at Hardin Park Celebrates First-Grade Authors
A grant from the Watauga Education Foundation and the passion of first-grade teacher Jenny McCourry made it possible for a class of 21 first-graders to write and illustrate books, which are now displayed at the Watauga Public Library and at Black Bear Books. Photos by Corinne Saunders
A pancake breakfast took place Friday, November 13, at Hardin Park Elementary School to celebrate Jenny McCourry’s first-grade class of 21 young authors. The students, as a class project, invented a storyline to accompany the wordless picture book Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola, and a recording of students taking turns reading pages of the story was presented to the audience, accompanied by projected pictures they drew.
More than 65 people attended the breakfast, including Watauga County Schools Superintendent Dr. Marty Hemric, school administrators, parents, family members and teachers.
Accessible to all students, regardless of age, native language or reading ability, wordless picture books bolster reading confidence in students, McCourry said.
“When I began teaching first grade, one of the first things that I recognized in my students was a lack of confidence in themselves as readers and writers,” McCourry said. “Because they did not view themselves as readers and writers, they were hesitant to take risks in those areas. I thought back on a project that I had completed while pursuing my master’s in reading education and remembered all of the recent research supporting wordless picture books in the classroom.”
In collaboration with a colleague, McCourry wrote and received a $558.28 grant to purchase a class set of wordless picture books for each of their classrooms, she said. The goal of her related writing project was to inspire her students to be lifelong, passionate authors, she added.
After McCourry’s students wrote the words to Pancakes for Breakfast as a class, she divided them into smaller groups, where they completed another book, and finally, each student wrote and illustrated one book independently.
The pancake breakfast honored the hard work of McCourry’s students, and “having the parents here is really exciting [and] really motivates them,” McCourry said.
Each child in the class drew a self-portrait of their face, and these were laminated and displayed at their respective tables, along with copies of the books they wrote.
As the first-graders showed their parents the books they wrote and pictures they drew, pride in their tangible accomplishments was evident.
“I learned that working together is important, rather than doing it yourself,” said first-grade student Alex McNiel of the writing projects.
McNiel wrote about a dinosaur for her independent book, and said that the idea came from a dream she had.
Kassandra Aguilera wrote her independent book about a ghost, she said, and proudly held up both the book and her self-portrait.
Aaron Mutio, another student in McCourry’s class, wrote about a trip he took to the beach for his independent project and expressed pride in contributing to the Pancakes for Breakfast story.
When asked how it feels to be an author, Mutio responded with a thumbs-up and enthusiastically said, “Great.”
After the breakfast, McCourry’s students took a field trip to the Watauga Public Library. The students’ books will be displayed at the library and at Black Bear Books for at least several months, McCourry said.
“Having their books on display makes them realize they really are writers, because they never looked at themselves [like that before],” she said.
McCourry said she is grateful to live in a community where “awesome parents” and entities such as the Watauga Education Foundation are so willing to assist in children’s learning experiences.
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