Glenridge fifth graders had a chance to explore some creative learning in literacy classes taught by Cara Barnes, Kacie Cline and Susannah Scotino.

The students have been reading nonfiction books as a class, in pairs and individually - mainly narrative nonfiction books that teach them information about history told in a story.

As they read, they selected a topic of history they were interested in learning more about. Each student had the flexibility to choose any topic they wanted as long as there was a history component to the topic.

All three classes did this together first and focused on the same topic; the history of the Macy's Day Parade. "This was really fun," said Barnes. "It was done during virtual learning days but the students did get to make floats out of balloons and I think they truly enjoyed the learning experience."

For the writing portion of this learning activity, the teachers have been helping their learners focus on how to become better informational writers. They are achieving this by practicing, studying mentor texts, revising, studying craft and simply writing.

Each student was asked to write three vignettes (brief paragraphs) related to their main topic - many wrote more than that. These learners also examined text features from mentor texts and worked to add these to their writing as well.

"It's been a fun project and every single student has learned so much," added Barnes. "They are little fact finders and cool fact sharers and they all did a terrific job."

Check out the photos captured from their projects.