KINGWOOD — Zoe Fasouletos and Kyra Stiles made history for Preston County Schools this year.
“I don’t remember having an elementary winner in 30 years, and now to have two from Kingwood Elementary!” Kingwood Elementary teacher Debbie Zigray told the Preston County Board of Education last week.
The wins were in the statewide West Virginia Young Writers Contest, a part of the National Writing Project. Zoe won first place statewide among second graders, and Kyra, a fourth grader, won third place statewide at her grade level.
Zoe is the daughter of Kerry and Michael Fasouletos, and Kyra is the daughter of William and Stephanie Stiles.
They received their medals and certificates May 11 at the University of Charleston, and first-place winners read their stories aloud.
“I didn’t want them to see that I was scared,” Zoe said.
Kyra also won one of the Kindle Fire 8 devices given away at the awards ceremony.
Zoe’s story, “The Talking Frog,” is illustrated with her drawings. The talking frog wants to lose his voice, so he goes first to his friends, who tell him to swallow seaweed. That doesn’t work, so he asks his father, who said to eat mud.
That didn’t work either, so the frog goes to see the wizard. The wizard says he could cast a spell on the frog, but then they notice smoke from the burning trees outside.
The talking frog runs to warn his friends of the fire and decides maybe it is good to have a voice after all.
Kyra’s story is about her gray cat, Luna, and their adventures as Luna follows her one day.
Both students like to read. Zoe prefers scary books, like the Goosebumps series, while Kyra likes the “I Survived” series of historical fiction.
Zoe’s classroom teacher is Debbie Royce, and Kyra’s is Zigray.
Kingwood Elementary Principal Jill Zeigler said the wins were “impressive.” Students have been focusing on improving their writing skills daily, she said.
“In January, when we took the classroom benchmark assessment, we found weaknesses in writing, so we analyzed the data and found what we needed to focus on,” Zeigler said.
