Students at Flowertown Elementary School received an authentic experience of rigor, relevance and relationships when they participated in the day and evening event “Hats off to Our Favorite Authors” on March 3. This is the second annual time that the school has held this event coordinated by Edna Spencer, school librarian, Aynsley Hadley, Title I, and Kristen Jackson, teacher.
The school hosted local author Margie Willis Clary of Charleston and Dr. Crystal Ball O’Conner from Greenville. In addition to these fabulous presenters, Mother Goose also arrived as a special guest reader for our youngest students. Margie Clary captured the minds of first-, second-, third-, and fifth-graders with her relevant stories to history and local events about Charleston and South Carolina. Dr. O’Conner revved the minds of our fourth-graders with writing strategies connected to her published books as students prepared to take PASS.
Mother Goose was well-received and the younger children learned a lot about the stories that many of us have grown to love and cherish over the years. During the day, three parent workshops were offered by Title I to invite parents to participate in this special day to celebrate literacy with their child. This special day was part of the school’s Read Across America’s weekly events. FES hopes to continue to offer this opportunity for students to meet authentic authors, parents to learn new literacy strategies and staff to participate in staff development opportunities to grow their learners as writers.