Chelsea Intermediate School participates in all-school read

Chelsea third through fifth grade students are enjoying “One Book, One School,” an all-school read. Students have been participating in a variety of fun and educational activities related to the book “What Do You Do With An Idea?” by Kobi Yamada.

The story is about a boy who has an idea. Because he wasn’t sure what to do with his idea, he tried to pretend it didn’t exist. But the idea kept growing! As the boy became more secure about the idea, he shared it with others and persevered when people laughed at it. When he gradually felt stronger about the idea, the boy decided to nurture and love it and found that it made him see life differently. His idea became a part of everything around him and changed the world.

The students began the program by discussing “what is an idea?” and “what does it mean to persevere?” Each class created an anchor chart, brainstorming where ideas come from. Classroom teachers read the story to their class and discussed it, followed by students creating their own individual “Idea Portrait” the next day. They were asked to create a portrait of themselves showing all the ideas they have “floating in their head.” Students also visited grade level “Idea Factories” to respond to the prompt, “How can my idea change the world?”

The students were enthusiastic about the reading project, coming up with ideas and determining how their idea might change the world. Some of their ideas included creating a new sport of competitive dodge ball, making a new charger for electronics, creating a hover car that would mean less car accidents, finding ways for older people to get around easier, developing faster ovens and freezers, inventing glasses to help blind people see, creating a recipe for healthy pizza, making robots to clean your house, inventing a box to get super power, creating a flying pet carrier, coming up with ways to make different kinds of paper to save trees, developing new means of helping people who are sick, inventing electric sneakers and changing the gaming world of MODS.

By the end of the week, students participated in a discussion about famous inventors and decorated a leaf by writing what they would do with an idea. These leaves were placed on a large mural located in the lunchroom for the entire school and visitors to enjoy.