by Claire Miller
Almost 200 children from Atlanta-area child care centers came to Georgia State University for an afternoon of winter-themed literacy activities as part of Jumpstart’s 4th annual Winter Wonderland Literacy Festival.
The festival, held on Nov. 30 in Georgia State’s Student Center, gave Jumpstart students and volunteers from the College of Education’s Early College program the opportunity to work directly with children as they decorated picture frames, created paper ornaments and learned to spell words associated with winter, such as “icicle,” “blizzard” and “frosty.”
Jumpstart, a nonprofit organization that places current college students and volunteers at early learning centers to teach language and literacy skills, has programs at several universities throughout the country. The corps members and volunteers who work in Georgia State’s Jumpstart program, housed in the College of Education’s Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence, log hundreds of hours of classroom work during the school year as well as host events like the literacy festival.
Georgia State student Brittanee Rolle, who also serves as Jumpstart’s volunteer coordinator, said the festival not only allows college students to learn how to teach lessons, but also creates positive learning experiences outside of the classroom for the children who attend.
“Kids come to this and hopefully they’ll remember that they had fun learning,” Rolle said. “We had one child who told me he had trouble spelling and by the end of today, he’s made progress learning to spell. He was so excited about it and that’s what keeps me involved.”
For more information about Jumpstart and other Crim Center programs, visit http://education.gsu.edu/cuee.
