Nose inches away from Dr. Seuss' rhymes, Erith Eyahpaise-Springett stumbled over a word before her reading buddy jumped in.
"That one says 'would,'" corrected Raquel Pokiak, a Grade 9 Kelly Road secondary student.
They continued on slowly, line by line, with Pokiak using as a reading guide the bookmark the Grade 3 student handmade with the rest of her Heather Park elementary classmates.
The exercise was part of Drop Everything and Read, now in its ninth year and a day where schools across the country set aside time for the quiet activity.
Or, in this case, a shared experience between high school students at Kelly Road and Heather Park elementary.
"I think it's important for the Grade 3s to see role models," said Pokiak.
That's one of the reasons why Kelly Road teacher-librarian Rhea Woolgar organized the event.
"We drop everything and read to show how important literacy is in Canada," Woolgar told the high school students Monday afternoon.
"This is a skill that doesn't wear off," Woolgar said of reading. "We read to learn for the rest of our lives."
For Pokiak, who hopes to be a children's author, she thought the senior students benefited from working with young readers.
"It's really good working with little kids," she said. "(For me) it would be really good going into their imaginations and finding what they like and writing about it."
In fact, she's already started. The 14-year-old has written a 300-page book as well as a few children's stories. She hopes to be published one day - a goal her mother also has.
The Grade 9 student writes fantasy and science fiction because "it's fun when you have a boring life, you can escape reality."
She's been doing that for as long as she can remember.
"Even before I could write I was telling my mom these wonderful stories," she said with a laugh.
Not all of Pokiak's Grade 9 peers were as comfortable with the exercise, said English teacher Melanie Switzer.
"Some of them don't have the confidence to read out loud on their own, because it's a practiced skill," Switzer said.
"They get the chance to interact with books but when you actually make them say it out loud, it's a different story."
Most of her students "would not read a book unless we stuffed it in front of their noses," Switzer admitted, but with daily work and events like Drop Everything and Read that can change.
"At the beginning of the year when I introduced silent reading to them, they were digging their heels in but now they are in it and they're enjoying their books," said Switzer, who has them do silent reading every class.
Heather Park teacher Christen Hofferd said her students were thrilled to come to the high school.
"I think it's also good for older students because they can see the excitement and sort of wonder that children have," Hofferd said.
For Woolgar it was another chance to build relationships.
"One of my personal goals is to make a connection with our elementary school so that when they come to high school, it's not such a scary place," Woolgar said.
"I think the sooner that we do that, the better it is."
