Christine Kreitzman’s Computer Information Systems (CIS) class presented books to the students of Central on Hands-on Fluvanna on April 3. The books were created entirely by Kreitzman’s CIS class students based on character pages created by students in Angela Gossage’s second-grade class.

“I’ve been looking to do more project-based work with my kids, and this was perfect. It was not my original idea. I belong to a CTE Facebook group, and another teacher out in the Midwest had done this with her students. I loved the idea and decided to try it too. Mrs. Gossage was awesome enough to agree to work with me. She helped her students fill out a character page and then sent them back to me for my students to create the books using Microsoft Word,” said Kreitzman.

The CIS class was challenged to create illustrated children’s books through a computer-based project. The results yielded entertaining books that the 2nd graders could keep and enjoy.

“We had such unique characters to use, and my kids did an amazing job. The books are beautiful, and the 2nd graders were super excited to see the end result,” said Kreitzman.

Kreitzman and her students took a bus on April 3 to deliver the books to Gossage’s students. “The 2nd graders were so excited to see us and by the end of the day were buddies with the high schoolers. It was such a great day. Each high school student found their partner, and they read the books together. Mrs. Gossage loved seeing everyone reading and playing, so much so that she asked for us to do this again next year. Can’t get better than that,” said Kreitzman.

She said she hopes to plan similar hands-on, real-world projects with her classes in the future.

“I had a lot of fun watching and helping. We also intended to make stuffed animals of the characters, but ran out of time. I may see if I can collaborate with our art department next time and make it an even better project,” said Krietzman.