Reading is Awesome!

On Friday we had an excellent opportunity.  A local elementary school asked our ILE class for volunteers to come to the school and read to the kids.  Of course I jumped on the opportunity.

So, once class was over, a group of us jumped in a car and headed out to Chaffee Elementary School.

Once we got in, they let us know which classes still needed readers, and I picked a 2nd grade class to read to.  It was pretty funny to see the reaction of the kids when we walked into the classrooms.  They all gasped, wide-eyed and excited, and almost immediately started shouting out questions.

For me, the teacher had already set up an old rocking chair at the head of the class.  I came in and sat down, and the class sat on the floor in front of me.  The teacher asked that I tell the class a bit about myself, so I asked them all their names, and then told them about myself.  The kids were most interested in my uniform, so I told them all about what everything meant.  They also had tons and tons of questions, which I tried to answer.

Part of the event was that the class was celebrating Dr. Seuss, and the books we were able to choose from were a selection of Seuss books.  I chose one of my favorites, "One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish". (If they had offered "Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now" I would have picked that)  It was nice that I've read the book so many times that I've got it mostly memorized.  The kids followed along well and while we were reading they were good about paying attention and not interrupting.

 

After I was finished reading there was more time left and the kids had tons of questions left.  At one point they were getting a bit rowdy, and the teacher was struggling to keep them in order, so I jumped in with attention claps. It was hilarious that as soon as I started clapping, the kids instantly straightened up and started clapping in response.  I even heard one of them ask another "How does he know this?"

We also had a conversation about what I do, and I explained that I was going to school, and that I'd just come from going to another school.  When I asked them what they enjoyed learning, I was surprised at how many of them answered with things like math and reading.  I tried to tell them that I kept going to school because there was always something new to learn, and that we are never to old to keep learning.

Overall it was a great experience and I'm glad I got to participate.  Kids are great, especially my own kids, of course.