CLASSROOM SPOTLIGHT: Fruitville Elementary

Students at Fruitville Elementary who received honorable mentions for the "Writing from the Heart" project tell The Observer about their plays.

Through a partnership with Florida Studio Theatre, Fruitville Elementary students worked with actors in playwriting workshops to build their understanding of the creative process, while also developing their writing skills. Students selected the plays the be performed before the entire school this week, and many plays were submitted to the 2010 FST Young Playwrights Festival, a national competition that received more than 9,000 entries last year.

A grant of $4,422 was awarded to teacher Danielle Ard for her ‘Writing from the Heart’ project that involves more than 200 students writing their own plays.

Rachel Gaul, fourth grade
What is your play called?
“The War of 1689.”

What is it about?
It’s about this father who’s a captain. His daughter likes to be with him because her mother died. An African army wants to take everything over, the dad goes after them, but he gets shot. His daughter helps him with the war even after he’s dead and then builds a castle in Africa in memory of him. She lives there until he dies.

How did you come up with this idea?
I like history. It kind of came to me, and I like to write.

Jonah Mundy, fifth grade
What is your play called?
“The Missing Turtle.”

What is it about?
A school has a mascot that’s a real live turtle. They keep it in a special aquarium, but then he escapes. They look for him at the rival school and at the turtle park but find him back in the school trophy case pretending he’s a trophy.

How did you come up with this idea?
I got the inspiration because I do have a turtle and he escaped a couple days before I wrote the play. We found him under the sofa.

Jose Perez, fifth grade
What is your play called?
“The Crow Buster.”

What is it about?
It’s about these crows that keep eating Farmer Franks crops. He makes six scarecrows that all do something different to get the crows to leave. Techno Tom wins with his dancing.

How did you come up with this idea?
My little sister was reading a book about scarecrows. I thought it was a good idea.

Logan Finlay, fifth grade
What is your play called?
“The Heroic Knights and the Three Evil Witches that are Evil.”

What is it about?
Two heroic knights have to protect The Magical Land of the Landish from witches and the evil giant, Ograr.

How did you come up with this idea?
Well, three girls in my class are not exactly evil but weird. I decided to write about them. My best friend Ian Sanchez is a heroic knight with me. It took me a month and a half to write.

Abby Kroneberger
What is your play called?
“No War Can Tear Apart Our Love.”

What is it about?
A father who has to leave his daughter to go to war. They make a memory box together, but when he presents it to her, he tells her he is leaving. At first, she feels upset, but then she says ‘No war can tear apart our love.’

How did you come up with this idea?
I was inspired by my best friend. I’ve known her so long and we do everything together. Then her family moved to St. Johns, Florida, near Jacksonville, and I had to learn to say, ‘We had our memories, but I know we’ll always be friends no matter how far away we are.’

Contact Loren Mayo at [email protected].