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School Unites Through A Book

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By SUZANNE SCHMIDT

IN THE LOOP

Published: November 12, 2008

Quail Hollow Elementary School is working to bring the school together by a shared activity through the "One School, One Book" program.

All the students in the school are reading the book, "Phineas L. MacGuire...Erupts," and then completing related activities and answering discussion questions until December when the program will finish.

Annella Foshee, media specialist at Quail Hollow Elementary, said that students are taking the book home and reading it aloud with the family, reading it in class and doing some buddy reading. Additionally, some teachers are also reading the book aloud and putting it on DVD, allowing everyone to have some type of access to the book.

She said she thinks the book is a good choice for all grade levels, even though it is on the Sunshine State Book list for third- through fifth-graders.

"The chapters are short and high interest," Foshee said. "It only takes about 10 or 15 minutes to read a few chapters. It is our hope the whole school will get to read the book. We are expecting the family to read aloud together. After they read aloud, we also will give them discussion questions and activities to do that go along with the book."

According to Foshee, the book offers insights into what children are going through everyday at school and teaches them about science.

"There are lots of experiments discussed throughout the whole book, which is why we decided to kick off the reading project with each class getting to build a volcano," Foshee said. "We made volcano kits with all the ingredients pre-measured and handed them out to the classes."

Fifth-grader Victoria Cannon said she liked the book because she learned a lot about science from the main character, Phineas Mac.

"He had to do an experiment a couple times before he got it right," Cannon said. "I learned sometimes you have to do things more than once to get it right. I also learned you can change so if you are mean you can become nice."

Stephen Chillura, fifth-grader, said he thinks the book is spectacular.

"It is great book that I can relate to," Chillura said. "I really like the character Mac R because he likes dinosaurs and so do I."

For more information, visit qhes.pasco.k12.fl.us.

Reporter Suzanne M. Schmidt can be reached at (813) 948-4288 or at sschmidt@mediageneral.com.

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