Fleming Elementary School teachers Nichole Guntulis and Carmel Osborne’s, 5th-grade classes are teaming up with the Essex High School’s digital paper, The Hive, to launch an exciting new collaboration. The young journalists are adding the Honey Hive, a welcome addition to the larger high school publication. These students will interview, write, and edit articles, and take photos to add to The Hive platform.
“We’re really excited for our fifth graders to have a new purpose for their writing and to collaborate with the high school journalists and the established newspaper, The Hive,” Osborne said. “Last year, we put out a mini gazette to feature our students’ poetry writing, and it was a big hit with the students. We decided to take it to the next level this year, and the kids are really into it.”
Osborne adds that the project has already taken off. “The project has taken a life of its own in the classroom. This is one of those ideas we had over the summer, thinking it would be fun for our students. Now that it’s started, we’re amazed at how excited the kids are to write and work on their writing,” she said.
She explained that the enthusiasm continues beyond the classroom. “We send them out to report the news with specially made Honey Hive notebooks,” Osborne said. “We just made official Honey Hive staff writer badges that they can present when they’re out doing interviews to feel official. The kids feel really important, which is great because it is an important job to share your community news.”
“They are SO excited! They are excited about having a purpose for their writing and to have a place to share it,” Guntulis said. “It’s so cool for them to be part of the high school newspaper because they get to write real stories that everyone in our community reads. They get to share what’s happening in our school, interview people, and see their work published right next to the high school writers. To younger writers, that is a pretty cool thing.”
Earlier this fall, The Hive journalists and 5th-grade students met via Zoom to kick off the collaboration. One Friday a month, Hive writers Scarlett Cannizzaro, Amelia Cannizzaro, Emma Cross, Claire Charbonneau, and Oona Osborne will visit Fleming in person to help the 5th graders brainstorm and edit their stories together.
Sophomore Emma Cross is one of the Hive writers participating in the project.
“The Honey Hive is such a great opportunity for me to expand my knowledge on journalism and writing while also being able to educate the kids,” Cross said. “I love having this opportunity and hope the kids enjoy it as well!”
Another sophomore, Amelia Cannizzaro, also a Hive writer participating, says, “I think it’s really cute that we’re giving the opportunity of storytelling and reporting to younger kids who might not have been exposed to these kinds of things yet.”
Hive’s senior writer, Scarlett Cannizzaro, is also excited about this collaboration.
“I’m so excited to be working with the fifth graders for the Honey Hive! I can’t wait to write with them and look forward to seeing the ideas that they come up with”.
