Ms. Moi’s first block English students went over to the Goshen Post Elementary School on Monday as part of a class project to read a picture book and draw pictures with children. The Champe students were to present a book they collectively decided on, and then explain the theme to the GPES students. On Monday, they chose The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater.

“Tell [Mr. Plumbean] that his house has to be the same as ours so we can have a neat street,” the characters in the storybook say when Mr. Plumbean renovates his house and therefore makes it unique, in a village where all houses look identical to each other.

Towards the end, however, the neighbors agree that everyone is different from each other and should be able to express that.

The story was perfect, Ms. Moi’s class decided, to teach the growing children that they do not have to hide who they are to fit in with others, and brought the book to the elementary school. After sharing the story and discussing the theme as a whole, the kids were individually given sketches of house to color, each in their unique ways. In the end, all of the houses were displayed side by side, making evident how each of painters were unique from one another.

“Our street is us and we are it,” declare the characters at the end of the story. “Our street is where we like to be, and it looks like all our dreams.”