School Visit Spotlight: 5 Ways Words are Precious at Prince of Peace School

 One of the most inspiring school visits this year happened at Prince of Peace School in Hoover, Alabama.

Wow, does this school love books, and WORDS!

1. Starting in Kindergarten each child begins writing and collecting writing samples to create a writing portfolio. By 5th grade they have a fat stack of all sorts of writing! What a gift, what a record of a child's life!

2. Every year classes select an author whose books serve as inspiration for a tablescape at the annual Writers' Cafe.

SHEL SILVERSTEIN

GARY PAULSEN

ERIC CARLE

3. Special adults are invited to sit at the inspired tables, share a snack and peruse the students' writings.

4. Also as part of the annual event, real working writers come in to share their stories with students. This year I was one of those lucky writers!

5. The director of curriculum Kelly Smith shared with me that when students move from elementary to middle school, they have a Harry Potter inspired event where a Sorting Hat is used to sort kids into 4 different houses, which are named after saints (It's a Catholic school.). The kids of each house pile onto a magic carpet of sorts and are pulled across the way from the elementary building to the middle school building. Very ceremonial... and inspired by the words of J.K. Rowling.

J.K.ROWLING

... and I haven't even told you about the art at this school! Art was EVERYWHERE. Wonderful! (I totally want to learn from this art teacher JoJo Settine!)