The Key West Citizen

Pupils
Make
Booklet On
Milne Poem

Mrs. Paoliello's First Grade class at Harris Elementary school has completed making a booklet featuring the poem "Vespers," by A. A. Milne.

As the writing lesson for each day, the six verses were assigned, one by one. At the end of the sixth day, the children colored the front cover, a print of a little boy saying his prayers, which had been stenciled for them. assembled the booklet and bound the pages.

From the beginning of the year, the first grade students are taught basic word sounds and rhyming.

Beginning with the second month of the school year. the day's writing lesson consists of short, simple rhymes, usually nursery rhymes.

The simple words are memorized during the reading readiness program, thus instilling in the minds of the pupils a sense of rhythm when they "read back" to their teacher each day the simple verses they write which they are really reciting from memory.

As the process progresses during the year. new words are learned and the pupil is well on the way to becoming an independent reader.

Also. writing lessons become varied and introduce new words to the pupils.

Mrs. Paoliello said that it was the hope of the teachers that the process would cultivate a love of poetry which the child could carry through later years of life.