I met two kindergarteners yesterday for my first day of volunteering with Education Connection at a local elementary school. I’ll be spending a little time there Tuesday mornings to read with them for the rest of the year with the goal of improving their reading skills.
I’m very excited about it even though I had questions like — can kindergarteners . . . read? Or write? I feel like I have no frame of reference, so this will be a bit of an experiment. The teacher did make an off-hand comment to the program coordinator at the school — who I guess had never had kindergarteners in this program before — that the students probably wouldn’t be reading to me. (You’re supposed to have them read to you, then you read to them, 50/50).
I’ll figure it out. Yesterday was just about meeting each of the students, two girls, and I walked them through a get to know you worksheet of favorite things. A lot of princesses and “bear books” (which I assume are the Berenstain Bears). I asked each of them to write their name at the top of the sheet — one mostly could, one definitely could not — and though I was worried about them opening up since they seemed so shy at first they didn’t have any trouble once I started asking them questions.
Plus I am pretty well-versed on things kids are interested in. I can talk about the new Frozen movie with the best of them.
It was also just a nice way to start the morning, having volunteered and spent time with kids before I got to work. I’m excited to make this a part of my weekly routine. This weekend I’ll go to the library and pick out some princess and bear books to read with them next week. Maybe we’ll spend the first part of the time playing alphabet games — the teacher said she had some stuff they were working on. I’ll keep y’all posted.
With Love,
Natalie