|
Ready, Set, GO! |
|
“Sharing Our Past — Shaping Our Future” Since 1974 |
|
Ready, Set, GO! launched in spring 2004. The program will reach prospective kindergartners and their parents in schools where a high percentage of children are not "ready" for school, their parents have a low educational level, or they are learning English for the first time. Statistics from the Vermont Agency of Human Services show that between 20-40% of Vermont children entering kindergarten are unprepared for the rigors of the learning environment. By offering this program, VHC aims to engage, before it's too late, the children most at-risk of becoming non-readers and falling behind in school.
Through the kindergarten screening process, most schools identify the prospective kindergartners who lack the basic skills to succeed in school. Participating schools will target the lowest 25% of the prospective kindergartners and invite their parents to attend three one-hour sessions. Parents are in the unique position of preparing their children, but may need help identifying what they should address. That is where this program will help. At these group sessions, kindergarten teachers and parents will work together to: · Improve their children's understanding of the purpose of books, · Improve their children's ability to tell a story from a sequence of pictures, · Help their children recognize his or her name in print, · Improve their children's use of pencils, crayons, and brushes, · Engage their children in creative, imaginative play.
By building the basic understanding of these five markers, identified by the Agency of Human Services, parents will be equipped with the knowledge to help their children become successful kindergartners.
VHC will provide the kindergarten teacher and the parents Ready, Set, GO! kits, developed in collaboration with kindergarten teachers around the state. The kits will be distributed to the parents to give to their children. Each kit will contain: · three books (alphabet books, wordless picture books, story books, or other concept books for example) · cassette of rhyming, rhythm, and linguistically rich songs · crayons, paper, pencils, sidewalk chalk · word games · book plates for each book · list of suggested children's books · a child's backpack · Starting Out Right: A Guide To Promoting Children's Reading Success by the National Research Council (for teachers' kits). |
|
A collaboration between the Vermont Humanities Council and the Permanent Fund for the Well-Being of Vermont Children |
