Miracle Kanu likes to write, especially when someone else gets to read it.
"I can write letters to my friends," said Miracle, 7, a first-grader at Calverton Elementary School in Beltsville. "I show them to my parents and friends to see how great they are."
On Friday, Miracle wrote for a new friend – 12-year-old Tyra Molina. The two were paired as part of the school's fifth-annual Celebrate Writing Day, where students in kindergarten through sixth grade team up to help each other become better writers.
"The younger ones are aspiring toward what the older ones have written," said school writing specialist Connie Wood. "It's a culmination of the emphasis that Calverton puts on writing all year."
The school hallways were lined with student writing samples, from creative essays to letters to President Obama. There's even a waiting list for its 20-member Young Authors Club, an after-school writing program for fifth- and sixth-graders.
The students enjoy writing for a variety of reasons.
"I like writing fantasy stories," Tyra said. "We get to express our feelings. We can just write as much as we want."
Celebrate Writing Day is designed mostly as a mentoring exercise between the school's younger and older students. The kindergarteners and first-graders work with fifth- and sixth-graders, who provide guidance on everything from perfecting sentence structure to identifying their favorite topics.
"We help them with their spelling," said Franklin Romero, a fifth-grader. "They're just starting to write stories and they get to share their experiences with us."
On Friday, the students shared their stories, ranging from two- or three-sentence paragraphs to miniature books. Many got the chance to show far they've come during the school year.
Sindy Ramirez, 7, is originally from Honduras and came to Calverton Elementary last fall barely able to speak English. She made remarkable strides during the year, according to Principal Mary Tschudy.
On Celebrate Writing Day, Sindy shared a paragraph she had written about a friendly dinosaur that plays with children.
"It was easy," she said. "I like everything [about writing]."
Wood said her favorite part of Celebrate Writing Day is that students are able to share their stories with a non-judgmental audience. Their work isn't evaluated based on content or grammar, allowing the aspiring writers to express themselves freely.
"When you write, you're really putting yourself out there," Wood said. "They feel comfortable to share, which is something that I'm proud of."
E-mail David Hill at dhill@gazette.net.
