Young Tutors Give Stories Extra Appeal

Six-year-old Cassiana Johnson grimaced when the princess kissed the frog and turned him into a prince in the fairy tale “The Frog Prince.”

“Not me,” declared the kindergartner in disgust. “I wouldn’t want to kiss any toad.”

The story looked so real because the princess, dressed in a pink satin gown with a gold tiara atop her blond hair, was telling the story herself. And the green, slimy frog was hunched on a table nearby.

It was all make-believe and the frog was a toy, but as Eva Arrington’s classroom at W.R. Nelson Elementary School became a fantasy land Tuesday, students saw, touched and listened to their favorite storybook characters.

Arrington’s fifth-grade students dressed up as Cinderella, Snow White, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Pinocchio and other characters, reading stories to kindergarten students as part of the school’s peer tutoring program.

Started in September, the reading program pairs a fifth-grader with a kindergarten student. Together, they read stories for at least 30 minutes each week. Tuesday, Arrington and her fifth-graders decided to dress up to make the stories more fun and realistic.

“It gave them a chance to share something,” Arrington said. “It made them feel important because they are doing something to help other students. It was great for their self-image. Their self-esteem was really high.”

Through the reading program, Arrington said, kindergartners and fifth-graders learn to appreciate classical literature.

Arrington herself was dressed as Laura Ingalls, who wrote “Little House on the Prairie.”

Amber O’Donnell, 11, who faced the prospect of kissing the frog, said she felt as if she had stepped out of the pages of the “The Frog Prince” in the pink satin gown that her grandmother made.

“It’s almost real, like you feel and see these characters,” she said.

Philip Cohn, 10, who dressed as Peter Pan, said he enjoys reading to a younger student because it helps him become a better reader and allows how him to show “how really good I can read.”

“You get the feeling that the kid likes it, and it makes you feel happy,” he said.

Amanda Hall, 11, dressed as Cinderella, said her kindergarten partner, Kenny Falconer, looks up to her like a big sister.

“I like being a role model,” said Hall, who now considers herself a young adult and reads mainly young adult novels.

Zaida Torres, a fifth-grader, said dressing as Snow White on Tuesday to read to her young charge had a practical effect: He listened better.

“Sometimes,” she said, “he can’t sit still.”