Monroe-Woodbury High School senior “Book Buddies” traveled to Sapphire Elementary and Smith Clove Elementary on December 13, 2023, to read to kindergarteners during their reading times.
The “Book Buddy” field trip is a reborn tradition at Monroe-Woodbury in which English teachers ask senior students to volunteer their time and bring books to read with kindergarten students. The trip had not been done since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that were implemented in 2020. This year the high school English Department Chair, Ms. Bulla, worked to organize the event again with the aid of both high school and elementary English teachers and librarians.
Senior classes were paired with elementary classes based on class sizes in order to have a one-to-one ratio between the two age groups. Surveys on which students were willing to participate were distributed to English teachers months prior to official registration.
On the day, the seniors left their third period classes to get on buses to the elementary schools. They were then greeted warmly by the kindergarten classes, teachers, and librarians in their auditorium spaces and dispersed to their assigned classrooms. The seniors took in about one to two students to read to. The entire event lasted for about 90 minutes.
“They [the kindergarten students] were smiling and eager and happy and excited to meet the bigger kids! It’s an incredible thing to witness our seniors come to life because they have an audience in front of them, hanging onto their every word,” said Ms. Bulla.
Ms. Chappell, an English teacher that participated in the trip, was incredibly happy the field trip was back.
“It’s a nice surprise seeing students open up and be so happy to share a book with someone else,” said Ms. Chappell. “I think promoting reading and literacy is important with this field trip.”
Jack Connolly was a participant of the trip and said, “It was a surprisingly positive experience for me. I wasn’t expecting to connect with the young children easily. But once I was there reading with them, I found myself easily having conversations with them.”
“The kid I read to was named Michael. It was awkward at first, but we bonded a lot through our interests in Nintendo and Mario Kart and had a great time! These field trips are kind of a two-way benefit because it gets seniors to be more engaged in what we’re reading and makes them think reading is cool,” said Anthony Coto-Gonzalez.
“The kids look up to us as sort of role models,” said Hayley Thomas. “They may not have people closer to their age in their life, so it can be really important and exciting to them”
The entire field trip is based on the goals of the #MWReads initiative is a concept run by the district’s English departments. The goal of the initiative is to encourage literacy rates and book-loving for all students within the district through events like Book Buddies, reading challenges, and book fairs.
