Students in Charky Martin's Kindergarten Class at Masterson Elementary School in Kennett show off a preview of the books they have self-published as an educational project designed to encourage creativity, writing, and reading skills. Staff photo by Deanna Coronado [Click to enlarge]

Kindergarten students at Masterson Elementary School in Kennett are in the process of com¬pleting what will be most of the kids' first self-written, self-illustrat¬ed, and self-published books.

Thanks to the support of the Kennett No. Educational Foundation, teachers at Masterson were able to offer their students an opportunity to be creative while increasing their knowledge in read¬ing and writing as set forth in the school's cirriculum.

This will be the second year in a row the school has received grant funding from the foundation to help make the project possible.

Because research and time spent in the classroom has proven that writ¬ing and reading are very strongly connected with a kindergarten stu¬dent's ability to learn and grow, Masterson Elementary is encourag¬ing these practices by providing each student his very own book to use as a blank canvas where his imagination can run wild.

"Allowing every child to create his own book gives them some¬thing to be truly proud of," said Masterson Elementary Principal Laurie McAtee. "Once the books are complete the kids will be able to share them with their teachers, friends, and family. This will allow them to read and re-read their own words placed on a page next to a pic¬ture they drew themselves. It will be Kindergarten teacher Charky Martin and her class are excited about the project and have complet¬ed most of the books they are work-ing on.

Being in the final stages of the project, Martin is able to reflect on the entire process and comment on its importance.

Martin said her students have truly enjoyed penning their own stories.

While using their creative imaginations to come up with story ideas and pictures that describe the tales they have written, the kids are also tun¬ing into their phonics skills, concepts of print, fine motor skills, and oral and emotional communication, Martin noted.

"The children have written about everything from going to a soccer game to helicopter skydiving," Martin laughed.

"Each book is unique in its own right and every child has put a lot of thought and ener¬gy into sharing his story."

In describing the goal of the project to the educational foundation board, project coordinators explained that the book project is indeed intended to serve as a way to increase the childrens' ability to be imaginative, as well as, share and record their ideas creatively through writing.

Although many of the books were very different from one another with a broad array of subjects, there exists a majority of students who chose to write something about one important thing-- family.

Six-year-old Olivia Daniels, who is in Brenda Carr's classroom, is in the process of writing and illus-trating her book which is called, "Me and My Mom and Dad."

"It's a book I wrote about me, mom, and dad and what we do when we hang out together," Daniels told the Daily Dunklin Democrat as she pointed to a picture she had drawn of a little girl with her parents. "That's us."

Parents are bounded to be touched by their childrens' visions' when they get to see the books unveiled for the first time during a special Kindergarten program at the end of the year.

According to McAtee, the program will take place at 9 a. m., Friday, May 16, in the elementary cafeteria.

Following the program, parents will also be invited into their child's classroom to spend time with their children and read and enjoy their unique, educational work of art.

Each book contains a dedi¬cation page, title page, the story with personal illustra¬tions, and an "about the author" page in the back of the book with a photo of the author. All of the books are bound with a hard back cover.