I used to think that children would have less energy in the afternoon sessions of Jumpstart, but I was so wrong. Every single time we walk into that classroom, the kids scream and get excited and never been anything short of animated and enthusiastic.

Our session yesterday had been two weeks after the previous one because of snow days and spring break, but the kids had no readjustment problems; most of them were more on top of it than usual! Although Welcome was difficult because the kids were getting restless easily (as they are starting to know most of their letters), they were still energetic and one student in particular turned the tables on me by taking my name tag and asking me what certain letters were like I usually do. This particular moment made me smile because the student was being silly but also corrected me when I said that the letter “h” was the letter “n.”

Despite a two week break, the students in my reading group seemed to remember the core storybook very well. We were on the second implementation for One Dark Night, and as soon as I showed the cover and asked the students what they thought would happen to the cat, I received answers like “she’s going to go inside!” and “the cat is going to hide from the storm!” I especially was proud that they used one of the vocabulary words while describing what was going to happen.

A majority of the class gives all of the corps members hugs as we leave and one student in particular said “Thank you” today. I’m not sure what he was thanking me for, but it was a good moment.

-Mihika Wagley