Palos East 3rd Grader Wins Scholastic Storyworks 3 Writing Contest

Palos East third grader Maria Koutsis has been selected as the winner of the Storyworks 3 nonfiction writing contest for October and November 2023. Storyworks 3 is a magazine published by children’s book publisher Scholastic, which helps students in key reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

Maria’s winning entry was submitted by her teacher, Jolene Laka, for the writing prompt, “A Pumpkin Problem and 5 Solutions!” In her entry, Maria describes the best uses for an old pumpkin which include letting it “get soft and mushy,” breaking it into pieces, taking it to a pumpkin smashing event, feeding the leftovers to farm animals, and baking the seeds for a healthy snack. She even suggests that the seeds could be planted to grow new pumpkins. Whatever they do, she said that she hopes that people who read her winning entry will find other uses for old pumpkins besides just throwing them away.

“I hope that people who have read my paper try one of my suggestions for what to do with pumpkins the next time a holiday like Halloween and Thanksgiving are over,” said Maria.

The publisher receives hundreds of entries each month for its fiction and non-fiction story contests which challenge students to demonstrate their critical reading skills and to apply their thinking to a rigorous authentic writing activity according to Storyworks 3 Senior Editor, Tricia Culligan.

“Maria’s entry demonstrated a solid understanding of the story along with the skills needed for an appropriate and engaging response,” said Culligan in a letter to Palos East Principal Rob Szklanecki. Scholastic recognized the administrators and teachers at Palos East for “fostering a dynamic learning culture at your school, one that supports educators who are working to empower their students.”

“We are so grateful to be working with educators like you and Jolene Laka who support classroom participation in our writing contests,” said Culligan.

“Maria demonstrated excellent understanding of this writing assignment. She put forth a great deal of effort in sharing how to best recycle leftover pumpkins to benefit the environment. I am very proud of her hard work,” said Palos East third grade teacher Jolene Laka.