Anne Hutch Fifth Graders Read to Waverly Students

Anne Hutchinson fifth graders may be preparing to move on from elementary school at the end of June, but this week, a group of the future middle schoolers headed back to where their educational journeys began.

On Friday morning, 30 members of the Anne Hutch Student Council visited K-1 students at Waverly to work with our district’s youngest learners at the third annual Anne Hutchinson/Waverly Playdate. The popular tradition affords the fifth graders an opportunity to put on their “teacher hats” for the day, doing read-alouds with the Eaglets and spreading a joy for learning at the early-elementary school.

The event springs from work done by the Anne Hutchinson Student Council, a group that promotes leadership within the elementary school building. Of the roughly 75 students involved in the student council, 30 signed up to be “Eagle Buddies,” a group tasked with doing outreach to younger students and embracing their role as burgeoning student-leaders. Fifth-grade teacher Lindsay Farley explained that the Eagle Buddies have been working with literacy coach Dayna Orlando for the last month in order to prepare for Friday’s Waverly visit. 

“They basically went through a little mini-teacher course and Dayna Orlando deserves all the credit for getting them prepared for this,” said Farley. “She did different lessons with them, one about what an interactive read-aloud is, one on choosing the right book for kindergartners, one about what the kindergarten students are learning about now, and these kids gave up their time and recesses to be fully devoted to this project.”

Kindergarten teacher Nicole Ullrich said that she always looks forward to this end-of-year event, both as a chance to reconnect with some of her former students and to watch learners of different ages interact.

“I think it's so wonderful for the kids who are in fifth grade to come into our classroom and show everything that they have learned over the years and all the skills that they have developed,” she said. “Some of them are able to visit the kindergarten classes where they learned to read and now they’re able to take those lessons and share with the current kindergartners, some of whom are their siblings.

“It’s such a positive experience, and it’s so wonderful for our current kindergartners to see that they can continue to build on the skills they’re learning now.”

Farley concurred, noting that as the current group of fifth graders moves on to EMS next year, she believes they will continue to call upon the lessons they’ve learned at Anne Hutchinson and remain role models for younger students district-wide.

“Being able to see these students get prepared for middle school, then move on to high school and beyond, it just makes me so proud to see how they’ve grown,” said Farley. “This is probably our favorite event of the year, and I know that our kindergarten students love it too.”