Several students visited Morse Elementary and Timber Creek Elementary on Tuesday to read children’s books to future Timberwolves. The reading strategies class is led by English teacher Shauna Rinearson, who said she was first motivated to create the field trip to reenact similar experiences for her students that she was able to experience when she was younger.

“English classes don’t really get to take field trips anymore,” Rinearson said. “I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity because my group is small enough.”

Senior Cameron Fancher said she participated in the field trip for the second time after it was an enjoyable experience last year. She said she enjoyed the activity because of the fulfillment.

“Overall, it really made me happy,” Fancher said. “It was fun seeing all the kids look up to us and get so excited to hear that we were high school kids.”

Rinearson said the meaning behind the field trip consists of multiple big ideas, such as building confidence and oral reading skills. She created this field trip not only for her students to build reading skills by reading aloud to an active audience, but also for the students themselves.

“We want our Southwest Timberwolves to be represented in the elementary feeder schools so that we build excitement in the little kids as they look toward one day becoming a Timberwolf themselves,” Rinearson said. “We also want to model enthusiasm for reading to small children who are in the process of learning how to read themselves because it is a difficult skill to master.”

Reading strategies is an individualized program geared toward filling in any gaps students may have in reading skills such as comprehension, advanced vocabulary or reading fluency.

“I really hated [the class] the first few months I was in it but then it became very therapeutic and nice just to have a class to read in and get better at it,” Fancher said.

Rinearson said she hopes to continue this field trip next semester, as well as in the coming years because of the enjoyment that comes with it.

“It was really rewarding for me as a teacher to see my students taking a teaching role with the little children and that they were excited about it,” Rinearson said. “The students loved seeing the big kids [and] they were so responsive to our students and my students reported really loving the opportunity to go because of the little kids as well.”