Sixth graders have been so eager to
start our Kindergarten Buddy program and it has finally begun! Each 6th
grader has been partnered up with a kindergarten student and we plan on meeting
with them once a week. We are very excited to get to know about our new buddies
and begin what will hopefully be a long-lived friendship.
So far
we have read Halloween stories with our new friends and created Ghostly Glyphs.
We also had the wonderful opportunity to interview each other to find out some
interesting details about one another. The sixth graders will be creating a
word document with the interview information so the partners can create Venn Diagrams
as they compare and contrast their interests.
All of
the activities these partners share help to form a bond that will last well
beyond this current school year. It is always so refreshing to hear 7th,
8th, and even 9th graders tell us about their friendships
with the buddies they had back in sixth grade. This relationship has so many
benefits for everyone involved. Kindergartners are able to relate to older
students in the school and begin to feel more comfortable at Goodrich School.
The sixth graders learn how to put their own needs aside and now direct their
attention to this young student in front of them. What a pleasure it is to see
these sixth graders sitting on the floor with their buddies reading a story or
helping their new friends read a book.
This is
our first year in a very long time in which we have three sections of
kindergarten classes. At first, I suspected this to be a difficult hurdle to
overcome. How would we pair up students from two classes with the students in
three classes? With just a little juggling and cooperation from all teachers
involved (are there any greater teachers than those at Goodrich?), we were able
to select enough students from the morning to work with the one kindergarten
class and then have the rest of our students pair up with the two afternoon
classes. This dilemma ended up to not be a problem at all!
We are so excited to find out what
other adventures are on the horizon!
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