St. John Vianney’s fifth grade class writes book on being yourself

The cooperation, ingenuity and creativity of fifth grade class made a carrot come to life. Holly Ellington’s class at St. John Vianney School in Orchard Park wrote, illustrated and published a fantastic children’s book with a wonderful message of being yourself, “Carl Carrot’s Super Strong Second Grade Day.”

Ellington makes a habit of giving her students a cumulative project that uses all the skills they have learned throughout the year.

“I feel, especially in today’s digital era, children forget how important writing is,” she said. “We have New York State standards we have to hit. I think this would be a great way to trick them into really utilizing what we’ve learned. They realize that it’s not just cramming for one day for an exam. They do the book writing so it’s something that they’re proud of. They learn standards without even knowing it.”

The 40-page children’s picture book tells the story of Carl Carrot moving to a new school and trying to impress his classmates by pretending to be stronger than he really is. He finally learns that being his kind helpful self is enough. 

“They did a really good job of weaving that moral,” Ellington explained, adding the story has all the elements of good literature from a conflict, to rising action, a climax and finally a conclusion.  

Working on the project taught Ellington’s 10 students how to exchange ideas, compromise on goals, and share the workload.

“It was beautiful to see my class take the Catholic values that we learned and work together to create a product we were all proud of in the end,” she said.

Erie County Deputy County Executive Lisa Chimera stopped by the Catholic elementary school on June 5 to read the book to the class.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment and you are setting a great example for younger students both in and out of the classroom,” Chimera wrote on her Facebook page. “I wish you all a successful end to the school year and a fun, happy and safe summer break.”

The school is now in the running for a $5,000 grant from the National Book Challenge, sponsored by Studentreasures Publishing, which provided the kit for the book and published the final product.

Here are pictures of the book. I included  a picture of one of the 2nd graders who purchased our book and tee. He was completely  engaged and engrossed in the book at the reading. The little kids liking the book is so satisfying  for my class.