Conducted all on Zoom, our collaborative Story project will gather Story students and Downstairs Kindergarteners, and we will work together to create a story.

In our first session, we read Martha Lightfoot's book, The Box.  After listening to The Box, we got into our small groups in breakout rooms and drew what we were imagining to be in our own personal boxes. The drawings of the people, places, and things in our boxes will inspire the stories we create together.

In addition, the Short Story class visited with Mr. John Whelan in the Early Childhood Library this week to learn about children's literature and to get some inspiration for their collaborative story projects with the Downstairs Kindergarten.

After discussing Early childhood reading habits, the development of children's literature, and Kindergarteners themselves, we experienced a reading of a Corduroy story. Mr. Whelan made us realize the complexity and subtlety of stories made for children and also emphasized the need that all children have to see themselves represented in the books that are written for them. We then toured both libraries with Mr. Whelan and had a great time perusing all of the books on the shelves. We ended our visit to the Downtown Campus by playing with our Kindergarten friends on the playground.  Our class is so excited to begin collaborative storymaking with our Kindergarten friends!