A Perfect Session

The students in our classroom at Sunshine Early Learning center constantly surprise me. Whether it be recognizing new letters each session or connecting past books to current ones, each  time we leave session, I am eager to share these experiences with my team members in our van ride home. This specific session was full of these surprises, two that particularly stood out in my mind. Today was the second implementation of Lesson Plan 5, A Letter to Amy. Almost instantaneously when I took out the book, one of my partner children, jumped out of her seat to point to the front cover of the book. “There’s the letter to Amy!!!!!” she squealed, overwhelmed with excitement. She always impresses me with her memory of past story lines and details. This continued through out the book, as she recognized Amy’s parrot, Pepe, and told Peter not to be upset, because Amy was going to come to his birthday party. This continued to circle time, when she told me three separate times that she wanted to go to writing so she could write her very own invitation. I am not exactly sure what connected this student to the book so much, but it was incredible to see her increased comprehension and eagerness today.
 
Another one of my partner children is quite the character. Most sessions he sits still during reading for no more than 1 minute at a time, and will not read with the group unless he gets to hold one side of the book. I am constantly redirecting his attention back to the Jumpstart session, and his name tends to be on our teacher’s “list.”  However, when this student has individualized attention, he excels beyond belief.  To my luck, today I was graced with this students individualized presence in my center time activity. The two of us worked on the Alphabet Matching Board, for 15 minutes, and this student could not be more excited every time he found two matching letters. It was a slow struggle for him to articulate the name of the letters at first, but when asked again, he demonstrated his quick understanding.  In addition, when another student came to join us, he proudly told her the directions to the game, and helped her match her first pair of letters! Today was one of those sessions that seems to stand out in my mind. It was perfect that I could write about it here, and share these exciting moments with the Jumpstart world!

~Blaire Cohen

Corps member

Team Determination