Middle schoolers team with kindergarteners for literacy projects
Eighth-grade AVID students from Beacon, Frederick D. Thomas, and Mariner middle schools recently teamed up with kindergarteners from Lewes, Love Creek and Milton elementary schools for a creative, cross-age project inspired by two books: ‘The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions,” by Anna Llenas, and “Go Away, Big Green Monster,” by Ed Emberley.
The collaboration is part of the Advancement Via Individual Determination curriculum, which emphasizes building community and cultivating leadership both inside and outside the classroom. The project combines literacy, creativity and social-emotional learning in a hands-on way that benefits students of all ages. Students from all three middle schools were able to put their own spins on the project, each executing it in slightly different ways.
AVID eighth-graders from Beacon visited Love Creek to read aloud from “The Color Monster” to 78 kindergarten students in small groups. Kindergarteners, with help from the eighth-graders, later designed and colored their own “emotion monsters,” expressing the emotions highlighted in the book through color and creativity. Back in their own classrooms, Beacon’s AVID students will bring the monsters to life based on the younger learners’ drawings.
“This project supports both social-emotional learning and literacy while also giving our AVID students meaningful leadership and service-learning opportunities,” said Nicole Hughes, Beacon AVID teacher and project initiator. “It’s a beautiful example of how collaboration and creativity can connect students across grade levels.” Beacon representatives will deliver the monsters to Love Creek kindergarten classes in December.
At Milton Elementary, kindergarten students used a template to create their monsters first. Students named, designed and shared some of their monster’s qualities on their template. The Mariner AVID eighth-graders divided up the designs and got to work using felt and sewing materials to create custom stuffed monsters. The eighth-graders delivered their monsters to the Milton students Oct. 31, when Mariner AVID educator Heather Kindl also gave “Go Away, Big Green Monster” as a gift to the elementary teachers.
“The AVID students truly were able to bring the monsters to life, replicating them almost exactly as they had been drawn by the kindergarteners,” said Kindl. “During class, the middle schoolers applied focused note-taking and problem-solving skills to learn basic stitching techniques to craft each creation. It was an incredibly fun morning watching the kindergarteners open their monsters with the eighth-grade group.”
Fred Thomas Middle School students delivered their handmade monsters to Lewes Elementary kindergarten students Nov. 3. Kindergarteners read the “Go Away, Big Green Monster” book in their classrooms prior to designing their own creatures. Much like the Milton Elementary youngsters, Lewes Elementary students named their monsters, colored them and gave them some special qualities and characteristics. Then, the Fred Thomas eighth-graders did their best to include those details on the custom stuffed monster.
Fred Thomas AVID teacher Dana Orton said, “Watching our middle schoolers give their creations to the kindergarten students was a highlight for everyone! I think our eighth-graders were just as excited to give the monsters as the kindergarten students were to receive them. It’s through projects like these that our students can create meaningful connections and truly foster a culture of empathy, leadership and lifelong learning.”
The success of this cross-collaboration project has inspired both the teachers and the students to create more fun and unique ways of building connections between the middle school students and young learners at all the elementary schools district-wide.
