Fourth Grade Essay Contest
Source/Author: Adrianne Finley Odell, Assistant Head of School
April 30, 2016
On Monday, April 18, nine fourth grade students were recognized for exceptional essay writing. Each year, all fourth graders take part in an essay workshop. This year, however, the students did not know that their essays would also be shared with alumni judges to select the top essays for recognition and a prize of a giftcard to Barnes & Noble. We are grateful to alumni judges: Lindsey Porter '77, Laurie Reiskind '83 and Stacy Sher Conroy '00.
Mr. Norman Bungard, an involved citizen of St. Petersburg, was on our Shorecrest campus last fall for a Guardian ad Litem meeting. Mr. Bungard has been a Guardian for many years and he is also deeply involved with Habitat for Humanity among other local organizations. During his time on campus, Mr. Bungard picked up a copy of the Upper School literary journal, “Tides,” and decided he wanted to support and inspire our students by funding a writing contest. He made a donation to Shorecrest to support this even though he has no direct connection to the school.
On Monday morning, Mr. Bungard was on hand at Lower School Morning Meeting to present awards to the following students:
- Gregory F, “Think About Air Pollution”
- Sydney D, “Coral Under the Sea”
- Ethan B, “Littering”
- Natalie C, “Whales Need to be Free”
- Cyrus A, “60 Minutes”
- Kate D, “Living in a Friendly Community”
- Cameron T, “Don't Smoke”
- Adelaide O, “Finding Friends”
- Kaja D, Teachers Choice Award, “Why Recycling is a Good Thing”
Fourth grade students were excited about being acknowledged for writing great persuasive essays. Thank you to Norm Bungard for inspiring this with his generous support. The Middle and Upper Schools also had writing contests supported by Mr. Bungard. Winners for these contests will be announced in the coming weeks.
Quotes from two winning essays:
“It is wrong to use whales because they need to roam free. Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.’ We are not treating our animals very well considering they are being held in tanks and used for humans.”
-Natalie C
“Smoking killed my grandmother when she was 60 years old. Since then, I've been thinking of a smoke free world.”
- Cameron T
![Commotion in the Ocean with First Grade [Video, Photos]](/Images/1px.png?command_1=url&url_1=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shorecrest.org/userfiles/shpsv2mvc/images/news-images/commotionocean2024.jpg&command_2=resize&height_2=85 "Commotion in the Ocean with First Grade [Video, Photos]")
