Wyoming Valley Montessori 6th grade students have been running and operating their own personalized book business… Yesterday, they organized and held a “Fire Safety Recap Day” for all the second grade students at Good Shepherd Academy by teaching the importance of fire prevention and fire safety. They planned an activity, engaged with the younger children about recalling various fire safety rules, and invited the Kingston Fire Department to take part in the discussion as well. A special guest reader and sponsor of this event, Dr. Aman Ali of Digestive Care Associates, Edwardsville also joined our students by reading the personalized fire safety book aloud to the class. At the end of the event, every second grade student at Good Shepherd Academy received his/her own personalized book called, “My Trip to the Fire Station.” Each educational book is personalized with the child’s name and age, school’s name, friend’s name, teacher’s name, the fire chief’s name (Chief Guido) along with many fire safety rules from the fire department the child visited; in this case, the Kingston Fire Department.
To date, this is their 2nd fire safety event during the school year with over 60 personalized books published and distributed to elementary children who had previously visited the fire station. The 6th year students secured the other sponsorship this past December from Rainbow Jewelers, Kingston which allowed every first, second and third grade student at W.V. Montessori School to receive a personalized story book as well. The students plan to donate a percent of the proceeds back to their local fire department at the end of the school year.
Throughout the school year the 6th grade students have been holding regular weekly meetings. They created agendas, delegated various roles and tasks, kept track of the record keeping, etc.. Prior to the events, they wrote up business letters, made phone calls, set up meetings, proposed a partnership/ask in person, and were able to secure sponsorships before leaving both of the businesses mentioned. This money allowed them to purchase all inventory needed to print and assemble the books onsite in the Upper Elementary classroom at W.V.M.S.. These quality, hard-cover educational books have washable covers with fully illustrated color pages that keep children engaged throughout the story because it is about them and their recent trip to the fire station.