October 18th was the start of our K-PALS training!
K-PALS means Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies. During K-PALS, the children practice reading using strategies that we teach them. These strategies help them to hear how words are made and how to read new words.
We spent 4 days shadowing other staff members who were familiar with this teaching.
I must say, the teachers at View Ridge are AWESOME, and this is just another reason why!
We started our own official K-PALS groups on Monday, October 25th. I, personally, am enjoying it and I know the other AmeriCorps members are loving it, too.

Last Friday, October 22nd, our whole AmeriCorps team (thousands of us!) went across the water to Seattle for our official LAUNCH.
We got to visit with some team members that we hadn't seen for almost a month and also met so many new and interesting friends for all over Washington state! We also went to a Disaster Preparedness seminar with a HILARIOUS lady leading it, and learned a lot of really important things!
All in all, what a GREAT day it was to be an AmeriCorps member!

LASTLY, Carmela and myself (Danielle) volunteered at Naval Avenues Fall Festival last night and had a great time. So many awesome kids in awesome costumes!
We are very grateful to our Naval Ave. Reading Corps friends for letting us help out and are looking forward to doing it again, soon!


We are keeping pretty busy lately

Today we are meeting up with our Reading Corps friends from Naval Avenue Elementary!
We will be brainstorming and throwing around a few ideas for our MLK Community Service project.
For us, Martin Luther King Day is not a day OFF...but a day ON. View Ridge and Naval Avenue will be combining our powers to do something great for our community!
Keep checking back in and maybe, just MAYBE, you'll get a little glimpse into what we are planning.

AND REMEMBER...
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."