Books with author Mrs. Adams’ 5th Grade Class

After studying the structure of an archetypal story form, the hero’s journey, each student wrote an individual piece of Ace’s adventure. Each of the pieces addressed a critical component of the hero’s journey, from the original call to action to the eventual triumphal return. In addition, after the class identified the hero “Ace”, it defined the foundational characteristics of our hero. Once the individual stories were completed, they became (metaphorically) a collage, as the individual pieces were interwoven to create a cohesive storyline. Once edited and combined, the students were given a lesson on illustration and watercolor techniques by Rachel Moore and Kerry Dixon. Each child next made a master image template of their vision for the scene they had written. These pencil line drawings were then trnasfered to beautiful handmade paper. Once sketches were completed on the paper, the students then used an outlining technique to bring definition to each illustration. Lastly, our wonderful Aces chose a color scheme then used liquid watercolor to bring life to each page. The end result is an heirloom that can be cherished for many years as a reflection of the hearts, minds and spirits of our young Aces and the adventures in school that help make them who they are.