On Friday Nov. 17 some of Olathe West’s English 1 classes welcomed Heritage Elementary fourth graders for the student’s project on children’s books. The kids arrived at 1:15 pm and were welcomed by Mrs. Crane’s and Mr. Showalter’s English classes.

The freshman students had been building a foundation for this project for a while, and finally got to share the stories they had created.

“They had to develop characters, they had to create a plot, they had to use literary devices, they had to come up with a theme and create that in the form of a story,” English teacher Abigail Crane.

The teachers and students find the project to benefit the students. Both Crane and fourth grade teacher Kailyn Keplinger are both moving towards project based learning (PBL) in their classrooms.

“I find that students remember content for longer, they are able to demonstrate learning in ways that fit their needs best and therefore they are able to retain information,” Crane said.

The students produced the story books to help them remember the content they learned on the writing process and different forms of creative literature.

“They used their memories from their life experiences as basis for their stories and they’re now sharing them today with their fourth grade audience,” Crane said.

The students were able to take memories and create stories that come from a personal space and made entertaining stories that can teach the young audience.

“I definitely see benefits from both high schoolers and 4th graders,” Keplinger said.