Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Bert has Ernie. Charlie Brown has Snoopy. Lucy had Ethel.
Good buddies like these help each other through life's adventures. At Eisenhower Elementary, school is the adventure and the buddy program provides the map.
Kindergarten teacher Deb Hohman mapped out the buddy program at Eisenhower eight or nine years ago with third-grade teacher Julie Martin. Their classes would meet for half an hour every week for activities and programs and to develop relationships between students.
"Now, almost everyone within the building has it," Hohman said.
"We do holiday activities, reading activities, math activities, usually in the guise of a game, and a lot of writing."
Hohman said both the kindergartners and third-graders benefit from the program. For example, both grades work on the same concept, but on different skill levels. The younger students "can dictate to the third-graders and the third-graders can write their stories down, which is good practice for all of them. The third-graders are working on punctuation and spelling, and the kindergartners are working on getting a beginning, middle and end of a story," Hohman said.
The buddies recently performed a play in celebration of Thanksgiving. This demonstrated the benefits of the buddy program to Kim Hensley, parent of two Eisenhower students, Corey and Kelsey. "As a kindergartner, you have to memorize the lines and get up in front of people, which was a huge benefit for Corey when he did it," said Hensley. "Then, for Kelsey, who is an extrovert, it's a chance for her to explore that side of her personality."
Principal Chris Gensinger echoes the benefits of the buddy program.
"I think they learn to respect one another. They learn to help one another," he said. "Kids helping kids is a really powerful thing."
That helping travels two ways. Kindergartner Grant Allbritten explained how he helped his buddy during the Thanksgiving play. "If they forgot what their line was, I can help them out," he said.
Not only do the students teach others, but the older students also serve as role models to the younger ones.
"They can learn from us. We can set a good example of how they should be," third-grader Kelsey Hensley said.
"The camaraderie of having the little ones have an older friend here or on the bus or somebody that they feel really safe with" has proved to be another benefit of the buddy program, Hohman said.
Gensinger agrees. "The interaction between the older and younger students brings the school together," he said.
Ultimately, the third-graders benefit more in the long run. "For life skills, the older student recognizes the importance of helping others, developing relationships and accepting differences," Gensinger said.
"The whole program is wonderful," Kim Hensley said. "I love it."
