Every Friday, Ms. Greaney’s SIA join Ms. Harrington’s 3B for a buddy reading session. Each senior infant is paired with two ‘buddy readers’ from third class.

The senior infant children read with the help of 3B. Third class also read stories to the senior infants. During ‘buddy reading’ the children play word games and partake in writing activities. They also collaborate on seasonal projects, e.g. Christmas cards.

This system is proving to have many benefits for both classes. Both parties are growing more confident in their reading ability and it has also instilled a passion for reading in the children. They are benefiting socially and are developing social skills that are essential for the holistic development of the child.

The children thoroughly enjoy this system stating that “it is fun and we can learn how to read.” “It is good because we get to swap classrooms.” (SIA) 3B “feel proud of helping the Infants to read” and think that “it helps both classes because the Senior Infants can read and make friends” and the third class “set a good example and can read too.”

Buddy reading has been very successful and is very popular with the children.