Book Buddies
Eager to promote a lifelong love of reading, approximately 30 eighth-grade students of various academic levels from Lake Riviera Middle School embarked on a new service-learning endeavor entitled Book Buddies in which they prepared and presented two entertaining nights of reading and literacy activities for students in grades K-2 from district elementary schools. The primary goal of Book Buddies is to encourage both personal literacy and promote family literacy in the community. An additional objective of this program demonstrated to participants that reading is not just a requirement for academic growth but also a lifelong skill that is necessary for success and can provide personal enjoyment. Two evenings were planned and presented to district K-2 families highlighting the books: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. Creative presentations of the stories were reenacted followed by interactive stations which helped to reinforce major themes of the book through arts and crafts, kinetic games and visual scene reenactments.