Book Buddies are the BEST!

There's a long and treasured tradition at Horace Mann called Book Buddies:  5th graders are paired with kindergarten students for a weekly get-together.  Both the older student and the younger student bring a book to share and teachers often coach the older students about how they can help their young friends who are just learning to read.  As kindergarten students become better at making familiar storybooks sound right (using expression, "reading" the story in memorized phrases), they often join in as their older buddy reads a common story.

It is a joyful thing to see our oldest and youngest students so engaged together over books.  Of course, sometimes Book Buddies do other fun things, such as designing jack o' lanterns in honor of the season.  Please scroll down to see a few pictures of the Buddies in action last week.

We hope that books coming home with every K-5 Horace Mann student on their reading level--and from our well-stocked library--is encouraging plenty of reading together at home, too.  Thank you for everything you are doing to partner with your child and his/her teacher to make reading a high priority.  If you are interested in learning more about the Reading Workshop here in Lakewood and how you can help your child at home, please join us at the PTA meeting on Tuesday, November 14th at 7:00 pm (childcare provided).  I'll be recapping the K-5 Literacy Night hosted by the district last week at Emerson.