Gifford's Junior Journalists are Budding Authors

It's been an exciting spring at Gifford Elementary for four fifth graders who are not only moving on to middle school, but they've embarked on what could be writing careers.

Patch met Gifford Elementary teacher Paula Accola earlier this year and we launched the idea of student writers/reporters. Four exceptional fifth graders were chosen to become the first group of Gifford's Junior Journalists: Nicholas Heidenreich, May Kohler, Cameron Maderski and Michaela Woodward.

Throughout the spring, these talented students submitted blog posts about the , , and .

The contest is sponsored by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards and is meant to encourage young writers to explore writing and illustrating their own books. Students had eight weeks to write, illustrate and edit their work. Winners will be announced this fall, and they will have their books published and then displayed at state education convention next February.

"It was a whirlwind for sure," Accola said of preparing the students' work for submission.

Still, they got it done and the students were excited to talk about their work when Patch visited the journalists on their last day of school Friday.

Nicholas Heidenreich

"I wrote 'A Day on Pluto the Day Before,'" Heidenreich said. "This is about Charter and Jason, two young kids who form the Charter Jason Space Adventure."

The boys board a spaceship to get to Pluto so they can research temperatures and distance from the sun, but on their way to the distant planet, they run into a meteor shower. Earth is too far to return to so they crash land into Saturn.

"They meet three, three-eyed aliens and hallucinate about flowers, trees and water," Heidenreich continued. "Finally they go to Pluto, run their tests and then get back on the ship."

Maderski wanted to know how they got to Pluto if Earth was too far for their return in the meteor storm.

"It just was," Heidenreich answered.

If his story were chosen, he said he wouldn't know what to do.

May Kohler

"My book is 'Stealing Back Parents,'" Kohler said. "It's about two twin sisters with supernatural powers. One has the power of the earth like over rock and metals and the other has nature powers."

A group of Cayers (say-ers) steals their parents, and it's up to the sisters to use their powers to rescue their parents, she added.

Why do the Cayers steal the girls' parents?

Kohler paused and then put her hand to her forehead.

"I didn't think about that," she laughed.

But if her story is published, Kohler said she plans to sign copies at Barnes & Noble.

"I'll be there every day," she added.

Cameron Maderski

A big fan of adventure, Maderski also added in a little bit of the supernatural for his story.

"'Imagination Vacation' is about a box that Paige and Noah have," he explained. "They use it to imagine stuff that comes true."

Eventually, the kids decide to use the box to travel to different places. Not only do they explore jungles and outer space, but they end visiting some pretty well-known landmarks along the way.

"They think of outer space, and suddenly they were there," Maderski said. "But they also go to the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower."

If his book were chosen as a winner, he said he'd be excited.

"That would be really great," he added.

Michaela Woodward

Woodward loves mysteries so, of course, her book is more of detective story.

"It's called 'The Cookie Crime,'" she said. "Katie, Julie, and Annabeth are friends who like to solve mysteries. Katie baked cookies for her mom when they disappear."

But it's not easy to discover the culprit. The girls follow one clue and then another, first suspecting one person of the crime before moving on to additional characters who may have done the dastardly deed.

"Finally, they discover that Annabeth's little brother, Jason, is the one who stole the cookies," Woodward revealed. "And he's only three."

But did he eat them?

"Yes, and that's a lot of cookies for a little boy," she said.

If her cookie mystery wins the contest, Woodward plans to be right next to Kohler, signing copies at Barnes & Noble.

About Being Junior Journalists

The students said they liked writing for Patch and wished they could have written more.

"Being a Gifford Junior Journalist was awesome," Kohler said. "I liked the opportunity to see what it was like to be a reporter."

Woodward nodded.

"It was cool to see online what we were writing about," she added.

"Yeah, that was the best," Maderski echoed.

Heidenreich looked at his fellow journalists.

"Hey, you stole my answer," he said.

The journalists will move on next year to McKinley (Heidenreich), St. Catherine's (Kohler), and Starbuck (Woodward). Maderski's family is moving out of the district this summer.

Patch thanks you, Gifford's Junior Journalists, for the good news about what was going on in your school. We wish you the best as you move on and hope you'll keep in touch.

As for the next group of jounalists, Patch looks forward to working with Accola in helping bring good news about what students are doing at Gifford to patch readers.