~ About My Town Is Important ~

This project is continuing in the 2005 -2006 school year. 
Nov. 2005: Registration is closed .  Sorry!

Welcome!   My Town Is Important is an Internet collaborative literacy project.  Classes K-4 are welcome to participate.  The project fits well in a community or neighborhood study and includes whole-class and individual student poetry writing.  Classes learning about their state may prefer to use that instead of their town.  Classes with older special education students are encouraged to join the project.

The original project, My Town Is Important 2001, received a Miss Rumphius Award from the RTEACHER Listserv (International Reading Association).  

For many years, teachers have utilized the simple format found in Margaret Wise Brown's, The Important Book, to help students describe a special person, event or place.   This format can be used by new and experienced writers with equal success and gives students support for paragraph writing later on.  My firstgraders are introduced to the format early in the school year and often come back to it with greater confidence as the year progresses.

You must register and follow the directions for participating to have your entry posted on a webpage.  Teachers will need to know:

Your comments or questions are always welcome.  Resource pages are available to help you get started.

~   Marci McGowan

Project Description

Using the format from Margaret Wise Brown's, The Important Book, participant classes will write and illustrate individual poems about their town, and share a class poem on the project webpage that describes special features of their town.

Objectives

Students will learn about other towns and communicate with other classes using the Internet. Students will write a description of significant features about their towns using the unique format from Margaret Wise Brown's, The Important Book. Students will view participating class entries on the project web page.

Important Book Format

Note: Students can write about their town in general terms or with a special focus such as: the parks, beach, sports teams, school, places to eat, historic buildings, architecture, history, people, etc.  Students do not have to use The Important Book format exclusively.  They can use any poetry format (see resources). 

Extended Activities

All activities should be aligned with your state curriculum and technology standards.  Here are some suggestions for additional activities:

* Write an acrostic poem about your town.
* Illustrate your town's features.
* Interview government officials or celebrities.
* Interview your town historian.
* Compare/contrast types of towns (urban/suburban/rural)
* Graph towns by population
* Draw a town map.
* Create a postcard about your town.
* Write a song about your town.
* Map location of other class towns.
* Write an email response to other classes about their projects.
* Create a slide show for visitors.

© Marci McGowan ~ My Town Is Important 2003-2004 ~
All rights reserved.  Updated Nov 2005.