The students visited the school’s classrooms in groups and spent the first part of the school day reading to kindergarten classes. Each chose a storybook that they had studied for an earlier project or that they remembered from their own childhoods.

Kirra Day, an education major, chose “Sleepy Sheepy and the Sheepover,” by Lucy Ruth Cummins, to read to students in Shaila Hanson’s kindergarten classroom. The book told the story of Sleepy Sheepy, a little sheep who overcomes the fear of sleeping over with her grandparents for the first time.

Day chose the book because it reminded her of a younger family member who was nervous about staying with her and being away from their parents.

“It’s a story I can relate back to a personal experience in my life,” said Day. “I love getting to do this kind of thing with kids.”

The students she read to expressed their thoughts, also.

“I like sleepovers,” one kindergartner said, while another was quick to share, “I get to have a sleepover in four days!”

Ella Jensen read Brenda Li’s “The Girl Who Makes a Million Mistakes,” which shared a lesson in resilience and self-esteem.

“It’s about a girl named Millie who overcomes challenges as she learns and practices,” Jensen said. “It has a good lesson.”

Kongolo Mwenemkamba read “Mama, If You Had a Wish,” to his group of students. The book had a more personal meaning for him as he remembered reading it when he first came to the United States.

“When I was younger, a teacher shared it with me when I first came to America,” he said.

Mwenemkamba appreciated that he had come full circle with the book, now reading it to kindergarten students.

“I read it to learn English, and now I get to read it to kids. That’s really cool,” said Mwenemkamba.

At the completion of the day, the literature students wrote reflections on their experience.

“The whole experience was to meet the objective of reading and sharing a children’s book to a class,” said Halter. “They’ve been learning all the different genres and age ranges of children’s literature and how to apply that here.”