MSC Short Story Students Collaborate with HDC Kindergarten

This spring semester, the Merle-Smith Campus Short Story Class begins its fieldwork with the annual story project in partnership with the Historic Downtown Campus Kindergarten class. This kind of outreach is embedded in the DNA of the Story course, where students read stories, tell stories, and share stories with the broader community. By bringing stories to life through creative drama and collaborative storytelling activities, participants experience the mutual benefits of collaboration while fostering belonging, empathy, and social emotional learning.

In January and February, the class works with the HDC Kindergarten over five sessions. During the first visit, students read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and spent time drawing and imagining together. Using those drawings as inspiration, pairs of Story students and Kindergarteners collaborate over several weeks to develop original plots, settings, and characters, ultimately creating and illustrating their own picture books. The project highlights the creativity and voice of the youngest authors on campus.