When studying colonial America earlier this year, the students in Courtney Eller's reading group at Blue Ridge Elementary decided to take on the challenge of trying to write their own book. After researching colonial America through stories, researching in the library and on the computer, dressing up in period clothing and making a visit to the Whippoorwill Academy and Village in Wilkesboro, Eller challenged the students to create a book to illustrate the things they learned.

"When we started they didn't think they could do this," said Eller, who teaches third grade at Blue Ridge. She noted that her students "didn't believe in themselves as writers. I knew they could do this [and] a bunch of them said that they would love to write their own book but they just didn't think they could do it."

Over the last two months every student in the group has worked on the book and each student has created their own page. Eller said each student wrote a story for their page as they "pretended they were a colonial American child and used their research to write what their day would have been like." The students also put pictures on their pages and wrote the captions to go along with them.

Eller said the students chose to study colonial America because "they were interested in it. In the third grade we learn about how the past is different from the present and they wanted to learn everything about it that they could.

"They didn't realize that back then they wouldn't have the [Nintendo] Wii, or video games or even books because books were expensive," she continued.

The 23-page book, which the students have dedicated to Blue Ridge Elementary and Ashe County, is almost ready to be printed so that each student can have a hardbound cover of their book. They plan on printing the book through the company Tikatok that focuses on printing books written by children.

"I want them to have their own book so they can be proud and say 'I accomplished this.' Even though I knew it was going to be a struggle I did this, it's my work," said Eller. The only obstacle that Eller and the students currently face is raising the $300 needed to print a copy for all 19 students in the group. Once the book is printed the reading group plans to hold an Author's Tea event to celebrate the book's printing with their parents and the community.

To find out more about the reading group or their colonial America book project, contact Courtney Eller at (336) 384-4500 or e-mail courtney.eller@ashe.k12.nc.us. To find out more about Tikatok click to www.tikatok.com.