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Cherokee Nation Head Start Partners With Shady Grove Public School on Read Aloud Project

Students from Shady Grove Elementary School students read to their Cherokee Nation Head Start Book Buddies.

TAHLEQUAH, OK - Cherokee Nation Shady Grove Head Start Class is partnering with the Shady Grove Public School in their Read Aloud Project.

Third, fourth and seventh grade students from Kristine Thompson’s reading class at Shady Grove Public School have been reading to the Head Start Children every Wednesday since the beginning of the school year.

"The big school (Shady Grove Public School), as we call it at the Head Start Center, sends a reading class over every Wednesday. We call them our 'Book Buddies'," said Patsy Steeley, Shady Grove Head Start Teacher.

The reading class walks across campus to the Head Start Center to read to the children. "We like walking over here every Wednesday to read to the Head Start students," said Amber Drywater, a member of the reading class and a former Head Start student from the Children’s Village. "Reading to the kids helps me to be a better reader."

Kristine Thompson, the reading teacher, also does an activity with the reading class and the Head Start class. The children love the interaction between the teachers and all the classes. "I enjoy coming over to read to the children myself," said Thompson. "This effort is a win-win situation for both classes. It builds their self-esteem.

"This is good for the kids," said Nora Justice, a teacher’s assistant at Shady Grove Head Start Center. "We read to them everyday, but it’s different when the public school kids read to them. They enjoy the older kids reading to them and this helps the Center to comply with the Read Aloud Project."

The Shady Grove Public School students have read more than 300 books to the children at Head Start since the beginning of the school year. This includes the reading class plus other guests that come to read to the children.

"This is remarkable to have one Center have more than 300 ‘Read Alouds’ and we still have three more months of school," said Verna Thompson, Director of the Cherokee Nation Early Childhood Unit, which oversees the Head Start, Early Start and the Child Development Center. "This is the kind of partnership that we would like to see in all Head Start Centers."