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Health & Fitness

Young student authors publish chapter book

     ENFIELD—Seven excited primary grade student authors signed copies of their new published book “Stuck in Dreamland” for their families at a book-launch party on December 2nd held at Henry Barnard School.  Parents, school principal Nancy Hayes, and students celebrated the publishing of the new book created in a pilot writing project afterschool called KidZ Write, provided by Educational Resources for Children, Inc. (ERfC). 

     All the authors, enrolled in the ERfC Barnard School-Age Center, attend Barnard School. Under the facilitation of self-published author, Jennifer Moncuse, the K-2 students worked together to create the children’s chapter book after school. “Stuck in Dreamland” was published using Createspace and is currently available for purchase at Amazon.com. In addition to writing the book, each student provided the book’s illustrations.

     The student authors and illustrators included: Benjamin Platt, Kindergarten; Adam Albaghdadi, Nora Higgins, and Kallianna Zaugg in first grade; and Olivia Olden, Lily Pare, and Brianna Parlapiano in second grade. The students met every Monday and Wednesday for the past four weeks after school to work together on the book.  

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     Claire Hall, Executive Director of ERfC said, “We are proud of the students for this great accomplishment. Each student brought their individual creative energy to the project.”

     Keeping with ERfC’s goal of providing expanded learning opportunities for children after school, Hall said, “Moncuse was able to include practice of several national and state Common Core standards, including writing order of events, focusing on a topic, adding details, and collaborating with peers to write, produce, and publish a work.”

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     Moncuse said students learned about parts of a story, character development, and how to set scenes that make sense in the story. “As a group, the kids determined the theme of the story, decided on the characters, their personalities, and situations the characters would experience throughout the story,” she added.

     Hayes congratulated all the students for the great achievement. “It was such a proud moment for these young authors to share their experience and participate in their very first book signing,” Hayes said. Hayes said the students will be recognized by their peers in an upcoming Barnard School assembly.

     Hall said many parents are beginning to understand the power of expanded learning opportunities during out-of-school time hours in quality after school programs. “Parents want more than TV and computer games when kids get home from school or during the afternoon hours they are at work. Best practice after school programs that include core standards in the curriculum give amazing opportunities for student success in school”, she added.

     Ivea Higgins, mother of author Nora Higgins, said, “Kids this age are so full of great ideas and I think it is amazing how they got to use those ideas to create a published book.” The first grader kept the story line of the book a secret from her parents until the students had an opportunity to read the final book for themselves. “Nora was so excited about us being able to read the book— she wanted it to be a surprise”, Higgins added.

     Nora said her favorite part of writing the book was picking out the characters and drawing the pictures. “We used our imaginations to draw what we think the characters should look like, she said.

     Kallianna Zaugg said she really liked seeing her ideas included in the book. “My favorite part of writing the story was drawing a picture of myself and writing my biography”, said Zaugg. 

     The KidZ Write project was designed as a pilot program by Moncuse with the assistance of ERfC School-Age Center Head Teacher and Curriculum Coordinator Cara Webb.  “I have been so impressed with the enthusiasm of our kids and have thoroughly enjoyed watching their love of writing develop.” said Webb.

     “It is obvious that she [Moncuse] loves what she does. She has done an amazing job sharing the experience of creating, writing, editing, illustrating, and producing a finished product with the kids”, added Webb.

     As part of the KidZ Write process, Moncuse took all student ideas and typed them into a working story. “With all the great ideas the kids had for the story, what started out as the intent to write a short children’s story, quickly turned into a chapter book that is considered to be on a 4th grade reading level”, said Moncuse.

     Benjamin’s mother Ellen Platt said, “Ben has such a great imagination, it is nice to see it used in such an amazing way.”

     Moncuse, who writes under the pen name J Monkeys, said she always wanted to be a writer. Moncuse received her degree in Creative Writing from the University of Connecticut. “After getting my degree I worked in corporate America writing boring things for a regular paycheck and wasn’t very happy”, said Moncuse. She wrote and self-published her first children’s novel in 2011. Moncuse is the mother of two boys who attend Barnard School and the Barnard School-Age Center.

     “The KidZ Write program is exactly what I love to do—share my passion for writing”, said Moncuse.  Moncuse is also working with ERfC at the JFK After School Center to develop three public service announcements as part of the Digital Media Adventures Program with JFK Middle School students this school year.

     Hall said ERfC has plans to expand the KidZ Write program to another Center in the new year. “We have quite a bit of enthusiasm, not only from kids, but from parents,” said Hall.  In addition, ERfC is planning to include KidZ Write and Digital Media Adventures in Summer Escape, a full-day summer camp program for grades K-8.

     ERfC, a community-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, provides academic, enrichment, and recreational out-of-school time (OST) activities for the Enfield community. In addition to the Henry Barnard School-Age Center for grades K-5, ERfC operates before and after Centers at  Enfield Street (K-5), Eli Whitney (3-5), Hazardville Memorial (K-2), and JFK Middle School (6-8). Students from Parkman and Crandall schools also attend in-district Centers. Other OST programs also provided by ERfC include KidZ Sports, Vacation Destination, Summer Lunch Bunch and Summer Escape.

     For more information about ERfC, call 860-263-9935, email info@erfc.us, or visit the ERfC website at www.erfc.us. The ERfC administrative office is located at 50 Post Office Road, Enfield.

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