First graders in Mrs. Millie Joyce's Locust School class recently wrote and illustrated hard covered books, which they dedicated to their mothers, in honor of Mother's Day. Incorporating the Garden City Public School's Write Traits program, students spent several months learning about ideas, word choice, quality details, organization, and conventions. At literacy-center time, students used graphic organizers to brainstorm their ideas. They spent many hours perfecting their use of quality words, complete sentences, and organizing paragraphs. Like real-world authors, they wrote rough drafts and conferred with their editor, Mrs. Joyce. Final copies were typed, and illustrations were added.

At the Locust School Mother's Day Celebration, mothers were treated to heartfelt poems and songs before being presented the books. Each author dedicated his/her book to his/her mother and presented it to Mom with a hand-made floral bouquet.

During the month of May, the student authors also had the opportunity to read their books to Locust's kindergarten classes and to their own first grade class. These first graders truly reaped the rewards of the district's Write Traits program.