www.roanoke.com

JRHS freshman Marcus Houseman reads to Kindergarden students at Buchanan Elementary.

Rose West took some of her basic English students back to Kindergarden on Wednesday morning so they could read Christmas stories to Buchanan Elementary students in Kindergarden and pre-kindergarden.

West had to say this about the event when she sent photos of their trip :

"I am sending pictures for our trip to visit Buchanan Elementary on Dec 3rd. I wish every one could have seen the reaction of my high school Basic English students interacting with such joy and enthusiasm with the kindergarteners and pre-k kids. They did a wonderful job reading their Christmas books to the little ones. One kindergarten class even performed a song and dance for my students! It was one of the top ten highlights of my teaching career!"

As a special "Thank You" for helping me with this literacy project for my UVA class, I took my students out to lunch at Carinis in Buchanan afterward. We all had a wonderful time. Mrs. Garrett, principal at Buchanan Elementary, invited us to come back and read again next semester."

West is finishing her masters in Administration & Supervision on Dec 13th and hopes to start a "River Readers" program next year where she can take a group of high school students to read to the elementary students at least once per six weeks. She stated she is pleased to report that her struggling readers were highly motivated to return to Buchanan and read again!