Wilson first-grader crafts award-winning story
By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN
Wyatt Scheve looked a little nervous as his classmates at Wilson Elementary School were called to the front of the room one by one Monday afternoon.
Leona Breeden, director of education for Smoky Hills Public Television in Bunker Hill, was handing out certificates and stories written by the first-grade class of Lori Morgan for the Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest.
By the time Breeden got to the last couple of students, Wyatt said he "was wondering, 'Where's my story?' "
Wyatt, 7, didn't have long to wonder.
When Breeden called Wyatt's name, it was to present him with a backpack of goodies for winning third place overall among 115 entries in the first-grade division of the program.
Then, Wyatt was all smiles as he took his place of honor in front of the school's entire first-grade class and proceeded to read his story about four bear cubs getting lost in the forest.
Morgan, one of the three first-grade teachers at Wilson, said she had been trying to think of ways to "inspire (her students) to write."
When she learned about the contest, she thought there were a lot of valuable lessons to be learned and had her 16 students participate.
One of those lessons, Morgan said, was reading each other's stories and asking questions about something they didn't understanding.
"It was a good experience for them," Morgan said, "because they found out it was very important to make the reader understand what they were writing."
Anita Scheve, Wyatt's mother who is a language teacher at Felten Middle School, was impressed with the program.
"They did all this in class," said Anita Scheve, who surprised her son and attended the awards ceremony along with Wyatt's dad, Shane Scheve, and his grandmother, Pat Scheve.
"The judges liked the fact that he had a beginning, a middle and an end and had a problem to be solved," Breeden said of Wyatt's story that also included illustrations.
The Reading Rainbow program -- a "teach-and-learn program" of the regional public television station -- in its 14th year and is open to students in a 70-county area in grades kindergarten through grade three. This year, a total of 250 students entered, with nearly half of those being first-graders.
As she pulled a trophy out of the backpack and handed it to Wyatt, Breeden said it was the first time in her three years at Smoky Hill to make an awards presentation in Hays, and she would be glad to return. This week, Breeden personally will attend the awards ceremony for each of the top three winners at each grade level.
"Mrs. Morgan, can I put this on the announcements now?" Principal Tom Meagher asked Morgan, who had sworn administrators to secrecy until Breeden could make the presentation. "We weren't able to get it in the newsletter that just went out, either."
It's a sure bet Wyatt's name will be in the next edition of the newsletter, though.