Second-grade students in Mrs. Kennedy’s classroom at Skoi-Yase Primary School took their writing lessons to the next level this school year when they formally published a book titled “All About Animals.” The book details each student’s favorite animal, complete with illustrations and reasons why they picked that animal.

“They’ve been looking forward to publishing this book for a long time,” said Kennedy.

Stepping inside Mrs. Kennedy’s classroom, it’s clear that books were a major part of her upbringing. The room is decked out with Harry Potter memorabilia and positive affirmations about the importance of writing and reading. She is teaching her students what it means to not just write something, but to share it with others.

“We made sure we had the right punctuation, capitalization, and spelling before we put it on our final copy paper and illustrated it,” said Kennedy. She, along with her co-teacher Mrs. Henry and teacher assistant Mrs. Darling, guided the students through this process. Once they were happy with the finished product, they sent it to Studentreasures Publishing so that it could be turned into a book. “From researching their animals, to all of the rough drafts, I’m so proud of how they stuck with it and got this book to the finish line.”

On April 2, Mrs. Kennedy hosted a publishing party in her classroom, where her students got to hold their book for the first time and share what they wrote with their families and school administrators. They also received awards that denoted them as published authors.

“I wanted them to know that there is no limit to what they can write and accomplish,” Kennedy said. “We couldn’t have done this without their dedication, or without my great co-teachers.”