I volunteer with Everybody Wins! Metro Boston in a program called Power Lunch, that pairs working stiffs (like me) with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders to read aloud together once a week. We go during our lunch hour and the kids eat lunch while we read, hence the name Power Lunch. This is my third year being a reading mentor and I got a new student last fall. Internet, I wish I could show you a photo of this kid. Collin is 8 years old, very small in stature, with dark hair and a pre-braces smile, along with Coke-bottle-thick glasses. He loves all things reptile and amphibian and has a VIVID imagination. He is quirky in every sense of the word and never fails to make me laugh during our weekly reading sessions.
Friday is the end-of-year celebratory lunch for the students participating in Power Lunch, and mentors are allowed to give them a gift of a book. Collin loves Pokemon. LOVES. He mentioned seeing Pokemon chapter books at another school’s library, but his doesn’t have any. Perfect! A quick trip to Amazon and ta-da:
I had no idea there were so many Pokemon characters, so I hope I got the right thing. Regardless, if it means he reads over the summer, my job is done.
But then I was feeling an urge to do something creative, so I dug out my stash of cardstock and craft paper and made him this bookmark:
front
back
Cute, right? I was pretty happy with how it came out. When I was a kid, I loved getting bookmarks. I actually amassed a sizable collection of them by the time I was in high school. I wonder where those are…
While I was cutting and pasting on the dining room table, my roommate said, “It looks like 5th grade over there.” Har har. Once she saw what I was doing, she said, “Ooh, I need a bookmark.” And so I kept cutting and pasting:
Now my fingers are sticky.
Tags: reading is fun, she's crafty, volunteering
Very cool Bookmarks! What a fun volunteer program!