Scholastic Writing Contest is for grades 7-12. Since 6th grade is not included in that contest, we decided to work on a community service writing project.

One of the many challenging, but fun, activities we worked on in ELP exploratory was book writing. Our focus was on to create children's literature books that conveyed certain topic area that our Elementary and Intermediate Guidance Department focused on. Through this project, we gained skills in writing, editing, and connected with young readers. One of the most challenging parts was understanding how to word the stories in ways that K-5 would comprehend them. We spend many weeks writing, and went through days of critique from our editors. After we finished the peer edits, a five time Scholastic winner and University of Iowa student editor joined us for a final edit before publication. That was an amazing experience and his tips made each piece better. We spent weeks working on illustrations, and by the end, everyone was helping each other, so we could make the production deadline! Though this project had its ups and downs, we are very glad we got to do this, because it was a such an amazing learning experience and we were giving back to the community.