A grade 3/4 class from South Nelson Elementary walked nearly three kilometres from their school to Art Gibbon Memorial Park on May 15 to share their new book, “The ABCs of Nelson,” with park visitors for the next month.
The school project is part of the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy’s StoryShare project that includes 18 weatherproof display boards atop posts to showcase a diverse range of written and visual content, including children’s tales, Indigenous stories, youth photography, biographies of Elders written by children, local history, recipes, and more. Curated by the StoryShare committee, the content rotates monthly.
This month features South Nelson Elementary student writing and artwork. The project was originally the idea of grade 4 parent Bryar Radonich-Camp who is also a program facilitator for the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy (CBAL) in Nelson, according to teacher Mrs. Bonikowsky.
“Bryar asked if I would be interested in doing a project with my class and of course I said yes because it is a great fit for our grade threes and fours to combine their writing skills, artwork and tell an interesting story about our own community through each letter of the alphabet.”
Students worked together to brainstorm objects or places connected to Nelson that could represent all 26 letters of the alphabet. Then each student was assigned a letter, wrote a page for the book based on that letter and illustrated it.
“It feels awesome to see my letter [‘H’] for the Hume Hotel. I actually wanted ‘H’ and I told Mrs. B about it, and she put it in the book, so I’m really happy,” said Elliot, grade 3.
Elliot’s classmate Devon was assigned the letter “G” and although he is sure that visitors will enjoy his drawing of Gyro Park’s features like the playground slide, pool and spray park, he says like a lot of the students in the class, he was hoping to illustrate “D for DQ”, the Dairy Queen on Nelson Avenue.
“If I could pick it myself, I probably would have chosen ‘D’ for DQ, but I do like playing in Gyro Park so ‘G’ is a good letter too. Both letters are better with pictures.”
During the project, students were introduced to the full writing process of brainstorming, completing a couple of drafts and then a final copy to publish on the park story boards, explained Mrs. Bonikowsky.
“Students learned it takes time and patience to publish a book, and now they get to see their book go out into the world.”
“It’s so great to see children create and collaborate on a project that contributes to literacy, community enjoyment and is also whimsical and fun. I think the book is beautiful and completely worth the walk to see and read it,” said South Nelson Elementary School Principal Dawn Snell.
The ABCs of Nelson will be on display at Art Gibbon Memorial Park until early June.