South Lyon, Michigan

My Town Is Important! Mrs. Bondy and Mrs. Hagerty (student teacher) Grade 1 Bartlett Elementary School South Lyon, Michigan
The Important Thing About Our Town The important thing about our town is that our family and friends live here.
Our families like to go to the ice cream shop because the ice cream is so good. We have about 100 friends. We like to play on the big slide at school. We play outside and inside.		Our friends are good people. We can go to the parks and play. Some people go sledding at McHattie Park when it snows. We can see many deer, raccoons, and geese at Kensington Park.
In the spring we can smell the apple blossoms from Erwin's Orchards.		When it is summer we ride our bikes. In the fall we like to pick apples and pumpkins.
But the most important thing about our town is that our family and friends live here.
Community Study We began the study of our community by comparing wants and needs. By reading The Rag Coat, by Lauren Mills, we were able to distinguish between the things we want to have and the things we need to have. Each student was given 2 quilt pieces on which to write one thing they wanted and one thing they needed.
		To really understand all that our community had to offer, we read When I Was Young in the Mountains, by Cynthia Rylant. We used her story to awaken our senses about our own community. After brainstorming a list of all the features of our town, each student was given a blank puzzle piece to illustrate his/her favorite place in town. The students were given edge pieces from the puzzle to write their names on. This allowed me to keep a "piece" of each of them since my student teaching assignment is completed.
We created a class book of our story and several students illustrated pages for us. I read the children the story of Flat Stanley, by Jeff Brown. We polished our letter-writing skills and each student brought in an address from home. We wrote letters to our friends and relatives telling 3 facts about our town and sent Stanley on his way. Hopefully, Stanley will return with facts about the town where he visited.		I also made a PowerPoint presentation of our book which the students illustrated. *(ed. note: Some of the illustrations have been cropped and placed within the My Town project shown above)*
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My Town Is Important!