Mrs. Hammel had her English 1 class write simple short stories that a child could read and understand. On November 1, Mrs. Hammel took those classes on a small field trip to the Chester Grade School so her students could read their stories to the intended audience, the second graders. Mrs. Hammel divided her classes into an AM group and a PM group; she then divided those classes into three smaller groups. One group would read to Mrs. Jany’s students, another group would read to Mrs. Herrell’s students, and the last group would read to Mrs. Middendorf’s students.

Mrs. Hammel allowed her students to dress up as one of the characters from their story. There were many great costumes!

Mrs. Hammel had the second graders write short sentences about their thoughts on the stories they read. This was a great way to help the second graders understand how to write complete sentences better, especially with the high schoolers there to help the second graders write better sentences.