Lancers learn, write, mime

The students in Sandy Dowdy’s language arts classes were honored to have SGT Jack Frank visit them last week.  He is a 2011 Lincolnview graduate and has served in the US Army for the past three years.  He has been deployed to Afghanistan twice in that time.  Jack shared his family’s military background with the students along with his reasons for joining the military.  He told us that the biggest sacrifice for him has been leaving his family but followed that by saying he does it so that others won’t have to.  Jack commented that the appreciation shown by his community when he comes home is amazing.

This week those same classes have worked hard to write their final copies for the VFW Patriot’s Pen essay contest.  This year’s theme is “Why I Appreciate America’s Veterans”.  All students are required to write the essay for class, then each student can decide whether to submit the essay for the contest.  Last year there were two students who placed in the contest.  Erin Miller and James Greathouse were both chosen and attended a dinner at the VFW where they read their essays.  Prizes from the local VFW are $100 for first place, $75 for second place, and $50 for third place.  The national winner received a prize of $5,000.

On Friday Oct. 3, Lincolnview Elementary students had the opportunity to experience Young Authors Day, an assembly to support the writing curriculum. The day began with an all elementary school assembly by Toma the Mime. Toma talked about how to write for the stage verses the page. He also shared his experiences of becoming a mime along with his inspirations. The students watched and a few participated in Toma’s demonstrations of mime. Toma discussed the important components of how to write a creative story.  After the assembly, the performer personally helped students with their own stories.  In the afternoon another assembly was held where the mime performed the students’ stories that were written earlier that day.