Elementary students create school newspaper

Mountain Brook Elementary is proud to announce the publishing of its new school newspaper, The Parchment. 

The monthly paper is produced by 10 sixth-grade students who are part of the newest branch of the student leadership group, the Lancer League. After submitting applications, the student writers were hand-selected by their faculty adviser, Elisabeth Rohlfs-Hill. 

“As the language arts teacher, I feel strongly about having a school newspaper to give students an opportunity to write for a wide audience about topics they find interesting,” Rohlfs-Hill said. “The sixth-grade staff writers generate all the copy for the paper. They work together as a team, brainstorming the articles for each edition, conducting interviews and writing, meeting publication deadlines and distributing hard copies of the paper by hand to their peers and teachers. It affords a tremendous exercise in leadership and an introduction to the basics of journalism.”

The first issue of The Parchment was distributed in September and in the words of sixth-grade staff writer Angelena Manova, “My friends had been asking and asking about when the first copy was going to come out. We were all so excited.” 

Some of the featured columns include new teacher spotlights, short fiction pieces, book reviews, sports updates, school events and original cartoons. 

In addition to staff articles, The Parchment holds a monthly writing contest that is open to the entire school, and the winning entries are printed. 

– Submitted by Katie Morrow.