School Zone Academy takes top spot in three-county competition

Workforce Solutions Texoma staff encountered excited children on Thursday, July 19, when the Create a Book winners were announced Workforce Solutions Texoma conducted the Create a Book project for the second year and expanded the age groups to include not only ages 4-5 and 6-8 but also ages 9-11 The participating child care facilities in Cooke, Fannin and Grayson Counties helped the children in their care create their own class book, with a comprehensive storyline and illustrations, all completed by the children Through this process, the children learned basic concepts of writing, including definitions of author and illustrator and parts of a story such as characters, setting, plot, and key events

Fourteen book submissions were received in all and this project reached over 200 children Each child that participated received their own reading bag which contained several books and a small chalkboard or a writing journal The children in the winning classes of 6-8 and 9-11year-olds also received a professionally printed copy of their class created book with the center also received an additional copy for their classroom The project was created to encourage children to discover that learning and reading can be fun and creative Workforce Solutions Texoma is proud of the participating classes and their hard work on this project

The School Zone Academy in Howe took first place in the 6-8year-old division and second in 9-11-year-old Their books were judged for their comprehensive storyline, creativity, and grammar A first and second place prize was distributed in each age group The first place prize awarded to the winning child care facility was for literacy-based resources up to $1,500 and the second place prize was for literacy-based resources up to $750