A celebration of literacy was recently held in Carleen Parmegiani’s second-grade class where the students have been learning about non-fiction writing as part of their English Language Arts curriculum.

Family members, administrators, teachers and other students in the school stopped by to hear the stories and see the illustrations that the class members created.

Prior to the event, the students wrote and illustrated their own fact-based books, choosing a topic that was important to them and decorating their desks with props to complement their creative works. These included such diverse interests as dinosaurs, Manhattan, snakes, Brazil, butterflies and one student’s Ukrainian heritage. The books also contained an organized table of contents, researched facts, events, history and even a comments page for guests to sign and thank each student for sharing their stories and encourage them to continue on their writing paths.