Sara Stadem | Editor
For the second year in a row, Mrs. Vortherms taught her Tri-Valley fourth graders about biographies in a creative “pop bottle” way.
According to Mrs. Vortherms, her students were to choose a person of interest to write about for their biographies and they could choose anyone as long as they were able to find a book about that person that they could read about them. “I wanted them to find someone that they truly wanted to learn more about,” Mrs. Vortherms stated.
After researching their person of interest, the students had to create a file folder biography board of facts pertaining to their person. This needed to include the name of their person, birth and death date (if deceased), early life background of their person of interest including family members, major accomplishments and any interesting facts. Mrs. Vortherms also explained the students were able to include graphs, maps or any other related pictures dealing with their chosen person.
To go along with the file folder biography board was a pop bottle character that the student created and decorated to look like their person of interest that they choose for their biography.
Mrs. Vortherms explained the class set up the folders and pop bottle characters on the students’ desks. Each student was able to read their biography information and the students were able to ask each other questions about what was read.
“It was fun watching the students interact with each other about what they learned. It was more information than a normal book report,” Mrs. Vortherms stated. “The students seemed to be more engaged with this form of presentation.”
“I learn more about some of these characters that I did know before. The students wrote notes as they researched the biographies. They were continually sharing the little tidbits of information they learned along the way with me or other classmates,” Mrs. Vortherms said. She continued, “The students were interested as soon as the assignment was presented to them. Students paced themselves in order to meet the deadline. Creativity was definitely shown in their design of their pop bottle. I feel they learned quite a bit throughout the process.”