Hundreds of Elementary students get excited about their community

Last year, Warren County Public Schools created Elementary Gifted Resource Teacher positions to enhance the growth and development of gifted and talented children through education, advocacy, community building, and research. At A.S. Rhodes Elementary School, our publisher Mike McCool met two of these teachers, Faith Falkenstein and Justyne Louk.

WCPS Superintendent Dr. Chris Ballenger asked these teachers to have a year-long project to inspire students to learn about their community. Faith and Justyne got excited about the project and came up with a plan after some brainstorming activities. The overall theme is called Footprints. This project instills an appreciation for the incredible things students can see and do (and protect) in their community.

This project included over 100 third to fifth-grade Enrichment/Gifted students from all five of our elementary schools and included:

• Researching the person each school is named
• Pick a place in the community to research
• Create a Google Slides presentation
• Record the presentation
• Built 3-D representation of what they researched
• Create QR codes that linked the projects to the presentations
• Create a walking tour/scavenger hunt for students and parents that cover Chester and Main Streets in Front Royal
• Create Google Earth Tour which linked top the projects and places researched

On Sunday, May 22, 2022, the students will display their projects and share the information they researched at the Town Commons Pavillion from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

This project was made possible by a grant provided by the Warren County Educational Endowment, which allowed the teachers to purchase a 3-D printer and supplies for each elementary school.