Inside the Classroom:
Kindergarten Students at Eagle Elementary School Discover Community Through Literacy and Local Connections
Kindergarteners at Eagle Elementary School stepped into the pages of Last Stop on Market Street by exploring Brick Street in Zionsville. Through reading, questions, and community connections, they discovered the beauty in everyday places and the people who make their own town special.
Brick Street Tour - check out the video highlights!
Finding Beauty in the Everyday
Eagle Elementary kindergarteners bring Last Stop on Market Street to life with Zionsville Village study stroll
Kindergarten students at Eagle Elementary School recently stepped out of the classroom and onto the Village Brick Street for a study trip that blended literacy, community, and authentic learning. Inspired by the book Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, the experience connected reading and comprehension with hands-on exploration of Zionsville’s local businesses and the people who make their town special.
“This project brings together our literacy curriculum,” shared the kindergarten team. “This experience was an interdisciplinary one, which connects reading, writing, the arts, and community.”
In class, students studied the five senses through both science and literature, using CJ’s journey in Last Stop on Market Street to explore sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. Much like CJ, who begins the book reluctant to ride the bus with his grandmother but ends the trip grateful, Eagle students were encouraged to notice beauty in ordinary places.
Bringing the Story to Life
The teachers wanted their students to experience their own “market street.”
“Our hope for this trip came from our wondering about what makes Zionsville a special place,” the team explained. “We wanted the students to have an opportunity to learn about the small businesses on Brick Street, what the owners and others find beautiful, and how each of us works together to support the community as a whole.”
Parents helped stage scenes from the book along Brick Street, and local shop owners welcomed our young visitors with open doors.
“When we called business owners to see if they were interested in partnering, we received a resounding yes,” the teachers said. “Many businesses opened early to accommodate us. We had families who generously gave of their time and talents to also support the project.”
Deepening Learning
The trip followed extensive classroom preparation. Students read and reread the story multiple times, listened to different readers, and brainstormed questions to ask business owners.
“This grounding in text afforded the students a deep appreciation of CJ’s experience and his journey in noticing the beauty around him,” the teachers noted.
Eagle Elementary School Principal Andrew Foreman described the importance of making stories come alive for young learners:
“Teachers strive to make books come alive for students and help our young learners visualize the real-world connections, experiences, and emotions that a good story evokes. The schema of riding a city bus, like in the story, might not be one that a lot of our students possess, but we can make the story relatable by associating it with our own experiences. When students build a shared experience and build a shared knowledge, we also are making the curriculum more accessible to all.”
Community Connections
Partnership with local businesses strengthened ties between Eagle Elementary School and the Zionsville community.
“Collaboration with community experts is a key component to any level of project work. We are reading about ideas and concepts at school and the adults doing that real work are our neighbors and many of them are working just down the street.”
The benefits were felt by everyone.
“First of all, I’m not sure who had more fun, our students or the store owners,” Andrew said. “We received many comments from folks working at the businesses and folks shopping along Brick Street about how great it was to see kids out and about asking thoughtful questions.”
Looking Ahead
The project will culminate in students rewriting Last Stop on Market Street with their own illustrations in the style of artist Christian Robinson. Their finished work will be displayed at Elm Street Green’s story walk in partnership with the library.
Principal Foreman hopes experiences like this will become tradition:
“When we find ways to take our learning outside the walls of our classroom, we not only build fun memories for kids, but we also show that the work we are doing in school doesn’t have to be contained to school. We can look for relationships between school, home, and the community.”
For teachers, the goal is lasting impact:
“Our hope is that students walk away with an even deeper understanding about how a book can inspire and connect people; to see themselves as protagonists in their learning; to feel connected and valued by the community; to find beauty in ordinary moments and things; and to know that even at five and six years old that they can help the world to be a better place.”
"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."
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