By Dave Snyder
The Parsons Advocate
Friday, Aug. 18 was the day for a great activity at Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School. Students were “rockin’ in a new year” literally by painting rocks and doing various activities in conjunction with Title I Reading.
Teachers, Kelly Underwood, Michele Felton and Christine Ward, were among the adults supervising the activity of the day. Parent volunteers were also present.
Underwood said, “We are doing the rock painting to coincide with a school-wide writing program we are reviving – the Six Traits of Writing. Three of those traits are ideas, organization and word choice. We want the students to come up with ideas and then move them forward to actual projects.”
Each student, preschool through eighth grade, was given a rock shaped paper to color their ideas or themes on to use as patterns for their rock projects. Kindergarten students did their work in Open House. Preschool children also did their work separately. Friday morning and afternoon was the time for the rest of the students to do their projects
Seventh and eighth grade Art class students will study various artists. They will then come up with a design to build a rock garden in front of the school. Concepts such as spacing will be carefully attended to.
Felton, Title I Reading Specialist, said, “We must document activities that involve parents in our school system. By inviting them to activities such as this we are able to foster a positive relationship between the home and school. Obviously, this will benefit the children in our school.”
Several students shared their rock projects. Their thoughts behind their projects were interesting. Here are a few of their comments. Marley, a third grader, painted a tabby cat. She said, “Tabby cats are really calm. Also, stray cats always let me pet them.” Zannah, a sixth grader and Celina, a fourth grader, worked together to paint three crosses. They said one cross stood for each of them and the third represented Carlie, a two year old sister. Eli, a fourth grader, painted a rock with the word love on it. He stated, “I painted “Love” because love is important.” Chloe painted a picture of a single flower. She said, “This is the last flower standing, I am the one.”
Sixth grade students helped other students with their projects in the morning session. They did their projects in the afternoon. Some of them spoke about helping and about their own projects. Gabe said, “The teachers got their designs and gave paper. Macy said, “We got their paint and rocks for them and cleaned up the tables afterwards.” Addie said, “We did not help them paint, they did their own painting.” Abby and Lany said they were going to do their project together and decided to paint two ladybugs.
Katie said, “I’, going to paint a bee, cause there are a lot of bees.” Abbie stated, “I am going to paint a watermelon because I love to eat watermelon.” Brylee said she was going to paint a hedgehog and Jacie said she was going to paint the word kind and she stated, “People need to be kind.”
Some student ideas were lighthearted and some were serious. Everyone was enjoying the activity – “Rockin’ a New Year!”
