The Untold Adventure of Ace

After studying the origins of Granville’s Blue and White and its mascot, Ace, Mrs. Newell’s 5th-grade students added to community lore by collaboratively authoring a story entitled The Untold Adventure of Ace. The story showcases the children’s imaginations and their ability to connect personal experiences in school to larger life lessons about community and character. Through their imaginative tale, these extraordinary young artists remind their audience that as “Aces” we all have the capacity to be heroes in our own right. The Untold Adventure of Ace creates an awareness of our individual and collective potential, reminding us to embrace the good within ourselves, our students, and our community.

After studying the structure of an archetypal story form, the hero’s journey, each student wrote an individual piece of Ace’s adventure. Each of the pieces addressed a critical component of the hero’s journey, from the original call to action to the eventual triumphal return. In addition, after the class identified the hero “Ace”, it defined the foundational characteristics of our hero. Once the individual stories were completed, they became (metaphorically) a collage, as the individual pieces were interwoven to create a cohesive storyline. Once edited and combined, the students were given a lesson on illustration and watercolor techniques by Rachel Moore and Kerry Dixon. Each child next made a master image template of their vision for the scene they had written. These pencil line drawings were then trnasfered to beautiful handmade paper. Once sketches were completed on the paper, the students then used an outlining technique to bring definition to each illustration. Lastly, our wonderful Aces chose a color scheme then used liquid watercolor to bring life to each page. The end result is an heirloom that can be cherished for many years as a reflection of the hearts, minds and spirits of our young Aces and the adventures in school that help make them who they are.

After studying the origins of Granville’s Blue and White and its mascot, Ace, Mrs. Newell’s 5th grade students added to community lore by collaboratively authoring a story entitled The Untold Adventure of Ace. The story showcases the children’s imaginations and their ability to connect personal experiences in school to larger life lessons about community and character. Through their imaginative tale, these extraordinary young artists remind their audience that as “Aces” we all have the capacity to be heroes in our own right. The Untold Adventure of Ace creates an awareness of our individual and collective potential, reminding us to embrace the good within ourselves, our students, and our community.In keeping with their story’s theme, Mrs. Newell’s 5th graders remind us that nothing in life is more wasteful than to be inspired and motivated yet fail to take action. Go Blue! Authors are Kade Bafford, John Barclay, Gwen Bowman, Amber Gilliam, Ava Graban, Alaina Hilaman, Dylan Kretchmar, Olivia Liberti, Cormac Maclae, Rebeca Mayet-Velasco, Armen Nazarian, Alex Nieto, Isabella Rodgers, Olivia Roof, Sam Rycerz, Gabrielle Sargent, Garrett Sharps, Audrey Smith, Ivy Thomas, Joseph Worrell, Lizzie Fruechtnicht, and Elizabeth Newell.