Reading Buddies
This year at Wells Bang Na, the Grade 3 students will be continuing their meetings with their little reading buddies in K1. “We need to do reading buddies so we can help K1 learn new things,” said Edward, age 8. To make their visits more enjoyable for the younger students, the Grade 3 class will add skits from Reader’s Theatre and their original, handwritten plays.
During our first visit, the boys put on a short skit “The Three Little Pigs”. “My experience as the narrator helped me see that the little kids can learn new things when we show them something first,” mentioned Brilliant, age 8. Edward reflected “We were inspired to do skits by Grade 5”.
“I like reading to my sister and her friends. It makes me feel like I am a teacher!”, commented Sam, age 9. Sam has grown into a leader by visiting the early years classroom. As a result of reading to K2 last year, he is more confident when he meets new children. Actually, all of the boys in Grade 3 have gained much confidence in terms of public speaking and presenting. As a result this year, they are less shy during reading buddies.
The students will continue to help one another build communication skills during this year of shared reading. “The little kids need to improve on their listening, so when we read to them we can remind them to pay attention,” shared Jason, age 8. The older students thought about what they would like to help the K1 students develop over the next few months of reading together. “I hope that the kids can sit still,” said Jason. “I hope that they improve on English so that when they grow up we can talk more,” thought Edward. “I hope that one day they can be reading buddies like us!,” Sam explained. We all hope that the K1 classes enjoy listening to reading as much as we enjoy visiting them.