Our Building Blocks

1. Our Building Blocks By: Liliana Garcia-Ortiz

2. Wee Read’s Purpose: Is to provide parents and babies/toddlers with a fun and stimulating print rich environment. It also serves as a place where we educate parents on activities they can work on with their children at home. We help parents prepare their children for school. We also help the children with language acquisition.

3. The coordinator of Wee Read, Yoko Matsumoto, used to teach kindergarten. She was a natural. I loved being a part of the Wee Read program. It was so much fun. She gave us positive feedback and was a great role model for us. Week 1

4. Activities During each session we had activities planned for the parents and their child. We centered each lesson around a theme. Rosemary’s theme was the 5 senses. Rosemary put some fruit loops in a bag and had the kids guess what was in her "special bag." At first she shook the bag and let the kids listen to see if they could guess what it was. Then, she opened the bag just slightly and allowed them to smell what was inside the bag. The older kids guessed what it was right after they smelled it, but Rosemary continued on. Rosemary then opened the bag completely and told the kids that they could now see, touch, and taste the cereal. This was a very fun activity for the kids regardless of age. As soon as Rosemary brought out her "special bag" the kids surrounded her.

5. Silly Sally Yoko then moved on to read the book, Silly Sally by Audrey Wood. She had with her a board wheresheplaced the velcro characters up for the kids to see. They were eager to play with them, but they had to wait for Yoko to finish reading the book.

6. I was very excited. I had such a good time during the first few sessions. Mrs. Matsumoto asked which one of us wanted to read the book, De la Cabeza a los Pies, by Eric Carle aloud to the kids. I volunteered to read the English version of the book, and Nohelia volunteered to read theSpanish version of the book. During each session, the UTA volunteers took turns reading books aloud to the students. We sang songs during each session and the children played with the musical instruments that Yoko brought out.

7. Fun Times Mrs. Matsumoto brought out educational toys for them to play with. These were toys she had received that week and was eager to bring them out and have the kids play with them.  The kids were very excited, like we expected. Mrs. Matsumoto brought out some magnets for them to play with and some balls. These kids have so much fun throwing balls into boxes! Once it was time to go, we started cleaning up and the kids helped out eagerly!

8. The Kiddos Lexie Finley Jose Miguel Asaya Valeria Adrian Matisse Diana James Kayla

10. Lola Nohelia introduced the kids to "Lola" a hand puppet. I thought this was a great idea! They kids were in awe when they saw Lola. They loved her. Lola sang right along with us the Good Morning/Buenos Dias song.

11. The childrenfeel welcomed at the Wee Read and they know that we love reading to them.  They're picking up new words and we are providing them with a print rich environment.  We've focused on lessons that they will be taught in pre- school which prepares them for school.

12. What it all comes down to, is my experience at the Wee Read and the endless lessons that I've walked away with.  I've learned to appreciate each students differences and realize that I will face different "characters" and obstacles everyday. I will take each day as a learning experience and absorb as much knowledge as I can from my mentors. Yoko, the Wee Read coordinator, has been such an inspiration. She is full of knowledge and is willing to share it. She guides us every day and explains her reasoning and why everything she does is crucial and important. I feel as though this service learning was such a positive experience and has taught me so much. I will walk away from this experience with an open mind and more like the students I will come across in my classrooms, like a sponge, willing and ready to learn new things every day!