Fourth graders at Opp Elementary School made keepsakes of their past year by publishing books.

“We use this as something the kids can have to remember fourth grade,” fourth grade teacher Samantha Zorn said. “They can buy it for $27 and keep it with them forever.”

Fourth grader Luke Jackson said that the students were able to write down and illustrate every memorable moment that they had during the year.

“The first thing that we did was think about the most popular things that we did during the year,” Jackson said. “Like Pioneer Day or when Trippy McGuire came to talk to us. We also added the different projects that we do during the year, like we have to make design a two liter bottle into a famous person, the different ‘Who Was’ books that we read, The Oregon Trail game that we play, and Leadership Day.”

Fourth grader Ella Presley said that on the first page they wrote an autobiographical poem.

“We learned all about autobiographical poems so we could write it,” Presley said. “It was like what different things describe us as a whole. Like what color hair we have, how tall we are, what we look like, who are family is and then we got to illustrate it on another page.”

Zorn said that they use this project to promote creativity in the classroom.

“With the autobiographical poem we can teach literature,” Zorn said. “But with the overall book we are able to incorporate each child’s creativity.”

She said that the project is a way to share the lives of these students with new fourth grade students that come through each year.

“In Mrs. Gafford’s class they have a special book that they can choose when they get in their clubs,” Zorn said. “So this is one of the special books that they can choose from. New fourth graders coming up can always look through and see what they are going to get to do and learn about the classes before them.”