02-26-2007WINONA LAKE Ñ Fourth-grade students at Jefferson Elementary not only learned about the history of Winona Lake, but also created a book to share with others about the town.
Twenty-three students at the school spent the past three months creating a book titled “The Winona Lake Alphabet Book: A Tour of Our Town – Old and New.”
The class is studying Indiana history and the book was part of a unit on the history of Winona Lake taught by fourth-grade teacher Martha Buehler.
“The town of Winona Lake has such a rich and fascinating history that it is simple to create student interest in the town in which they live and go to school,” Buehler said.
Each student was assigned a letter of the alphabet and created stories about the history of the town with illustrations to compliment the stories.
Some of the topics highlighted in the book include Grace College, Billy Sunday, The Master Works orchestras and Fourth of July in the town.
Students began researching the town in December using the Internet, books, encyclopedias, old newspaper articles, old pictures and interviewed Winona Lake residents to gather information for the book.
Carol Forbes, assistant director for the Reneker Museum of Winona History, did a presentation on the history of Winona Lake in October. The class had a guided tour of the museum in November, led by museum volunteer Willa Henry.
In January, the students wrote and illustrated their stories, and worked in groups to revise and edit the stories. The manuscript was completed Feb. 2, and sent to Nationwide Learning, Topeka, Kan., to be published.
The book also will be submitted to the Warsaw Community High School EDCom event March 24 at the school. The event is a celebration of student learning.
The students also received a plaque from the Nationwide Learning National Book Challenge in which the book is a finalist in the competition. There were 7,000 books from schools who submitted books for the competition, and 25 finalists were selected. The winner of the competition will be notified in April.
The class held a book signing Friday afternoon at the school where each student received a copy of the book and signed each other’s books.
Winona Lake town councilmen Rolly Ortega and Dave Delp, Town Coordinator Craig Allebach and Clerk-Treasurer Retha Hicks attended the event Friday.
The students received gift bags from Winona council members with information on recycling in the town.
Rolly’s wife, Jennifer, a Village artist who creates posters for the town’s Fourth of July celebration, also attended the event.
Ortega brought 10 paintings with frames representing scenes of Winona Lake over the past 10 years she has painted.
Ortega gave the students sheets of paper, and they were asked to identify where the scenes in the paintings are located in the town.
A drawing will be held Friday at the school and students will win the paintings.