IT'S A SNAP! SECOND-GRADERS DEVELOP PICTURES OF THEIR WORLD

Amanda Smith's photograph won first place at Franklin School in the needs-improvement category.

Jesse Davidson finished third in the needs-improvement category.

Dana Kinder's photo won the beautiful-photo category.

Ericka Wicks finished fifth in the beautiful-photo category.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, second-graders at Franklin Elementary School have written volumes.

The school's 54 second-graders recently participated in the nationwide "It's a Snap! Using Cameras in the Curriculum" project, sponsored by Kmart stores and Eastman Kodak.

Kodak provided each child with a one-time-use camera and a 15-exposure roll of film.

They were instructed to take pictures of beautiful things and those that needed improvement as part of the project, which focused on "My Beautiful World."

Dana Kinder took a snapshot of the American flag waving in the breeze of a cloud-laced sky at Cape County Park. She said she took it simply "because it is the American flag and it's beautiful."

Kinder won first place in the local contest in the beautiful-photo category.

Amanda Smith won first in the needs-improvement category for her photo of trash dumped along a road next to a vandalized no-littering sign.

Smith said vandals "shot the sign down and they littered."

Kinder and Smith will each receive a camera and their winning photos are eligible for the national contest, which will be held in May.

In the needs-improvement category:

Ashley Day took second with a photograph of an old, frame house that desperately needed painting. "It makes me kind of embarrassed," she said of the structure.

Jesse Davidson's photo of a junk car and other litter was judged third best. "If all of this was gone, we could live in a cleaner environment," he wrote alongside his entry.

Rachel Story won fourth place for her photo of gang graffiti on the wall of a building. "We don't want gangs," she said.

Story also won in the beautiful category with a snapshot of a log house.

Olivia Swingle's photo of a boarded-up storefront was judged fifth best. She said she took the photo "because it is ugly and it makes Cape Girardeau look bad."

In the beautiful category:

Stephanie Clark's photo of the school playhouse at the Jackson City Park took second. "I thought since we went to school, I would take a picture of a school."

Ashley Steck's photo of a barge on the Mississippi River at sunset was judged third best. She said she took the picture "because it makes our world beautiful and makes me feel good to look at it."

Erika Wicks finished fifth with a springtime photo of blooming yellow and white daffodils, which she described as "very beautiful."

Students photographed everything from dogs to horses, and flowers to trash.

Justin Gribble snapped a shot of children playing on the locomotive at Arena Park, in addition to getting pictures of his whole family.

Noland Cook saw beauty in a floodwall welcome sign.

April Joyce took a picture of her mailbox because she said "it needed work."

Elizabeth Day found sunrises and sunsets to her liking.

This was the first year for the project locally. Jerry Zikmund, manager of the local Kmart, said he welcomed the chance to help children focus on their world.

Almost a quarter-million students participated in the program when it was launched last year.

Second-grade teachers Bonnie Kerr and Doris Mattingly said the project was a learning experience for their students.

"I hope they learn not just to look, but to see everything around them," Kerr said.