Team Kindness

Hi Jumpstart friends! I’m Maria Lewis, a freshman at American University and a Corps Member for Jumpstart DC! I’ve been a member of Team Kindness for about two months, and since then my team members and I have gotten so close with each other! Making materials, planning sessions, and traveling to and from Appletree Institute Public Charter School together every Wednesday and Friday afternoon has really enabled us to connect and get to know each other! Plus taking group photos together for the Jumpstart Team Picture Contest, which Team Kindness got second place for most likes (344!), has gotten us very spirited about our team and enthusiastic about team morale. We couldn’t be more thankful to have a lovely team with fantastic Corps Members, Natalie, Lauren, Tara, Stephanie, and Jenn, and a terrific Team Leader, Alexis.

Ever since the first time we stepped into our Jumpstart classroom, we’ve had such a positive response from our students and from our classroom teachers. Going to Appletree every Wednesday and Friday really makes our kids smile and, according to our classroom teachers, they can’t wait for us to come and read, sing, and play with them. So far we’ve done five sessions with our students and we’ve really seen an improvement in their performance and their understanding of Jumpstart as a whole. They really seem to be understanding what to expect from when we enter the classroom, which always results in hugs and them exclaiming “Jumpstart!!”,  to when it’s “time for us to part”.

With our readings, our kids have really been able to connect them to other life experiences and lessons they have learned outside of Jumpstart, which is amazing. They especially enjoyed The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza) and were able to understand the basic concepts of friendship and helping friends in need. My center for center time was writing for that session, and they were really able to draw what they liked to do with their friends. After that session, I switched to books for center time and picked out seven books that are related to friendship. It was really nice to read to kids that I don’t normally read with, who are equally as lovely and wonderful, and make more individual connections with the kids. At one point during the reading, the child asked if she could read the book to me next. Even though she couldn’t read the exact words on the page, it was amazing that she could understand the basic concepts. It really opened my eyes to what these kids are capable of doing, and how much Jumpstart has allowed them to expand on their skills inside and outside the classroom.

~Maria Lewis

Corps member

Team Kindness