A Afternoon at A.C.

This Wednesday I was so excited because I got to see Kimberly. We worked on her math homework again. She was learning about number families and subtraction. I am always so shocked by Kimberly's number sense. She flew through doing number families. In order to check and see that Kimberly was grasping the concept of the number families and not just following a pattern, I asked Kimberly to explain to me what she was doing with the numbers. She summarized that if she was given any addition problem, then she could make a number tree. Kimberly understood the commutative property of addition- if you switch the numbers in a addition problem, then they will still get you the same answer. She also understood subtraction- if two numbers add up to be one number (4+3=7), then you know when you subtract one of the numbers that you had added with, the difference will be the other number that you had added with (7-3=4). Kimberly was a little intimidated by the double and triple digit numbers that she had to subtract. We used the number line that Ms. Nancy had suggested, and this really helped her to not miss a number during the subtraction process. Kimberly and I then read a story about a magician.

Through helping Kimberly, I have seen the importance of getting appropriate grade level books. Although the center is blessed with a bookshelf full of books, they are primarily for emergent literary readers and chapter books. The only in between books that I have found are a book on a magician and a book on blood platelets. Believe me, Kimberly was not a fan of reading about the blood platelets, so we were forced to read the same book that she had read to me before. Although rereading stories is a great practice, one of the most important concepts to instill in a child is a desire to read. The children will not be able to experience the excitement of finding out what is on the next page if we are reading about blood platelets! (To be honest, I didn't even want to find out about what was on the next page and I love to read!) The children probably do not have access to many books in their homes and their families may not utilize the library. I think this puts even more of an importance on the center getting books that the children will enjoy!

I realize that the request for a full library of books is a very expensive task so maybe as students we could take a little time and initiative to visit the SILS Library in Manning Hall. While at the center, we could ask the children about their hobbies and interest and search together for books at the SILS Library that they would like to read. During the week, we could run by Manning to pick up the book and bring the book with us the next time we are going to be at the center. I think this would also get the children excited about doing their assigned reading because they would have to wait for the book all week!

If we are interested in doing this, we could get a lesson from the librarian at the SILS library so we could know how to use the site effectively.