The community’s young students-to-be can enjoy a day of storytelling, snowballs and crafts this Saturday in Destrehan – all of it for free, and all of it for a purpose.
The St. Charles Parish Public Schools’ Office of Federal Programs will be hosting Summer Snowball Stories from 3 to 5 p.m. at Jerusalem Shriners (1940 Ormond Blvd.). The event is sponsored by IMTT and will feature the school district’s Learn With Us Bus.
Fittingly, the bus travels to meet children – and their families – where they are before they begin school, helping to build foundational skills that can go a long way in the classroom. The objective is to establish readiness for kindergarten.
Pat Smith, the SCPPS’ director of federal programs, said that while the school district continually works to that goal throughout the school year, the summer is just as important a time to make strides.
“We’ve talked about this for the past two years,” Smith said. “Our Learn With Us Bus goes out throughout the year in the community to daycares and to events, and we do storytelling – most of this is anchored around literacy. We knew we really needed to do something for the summer.
“Kids will get free snowballs, they’re going to get to do crafts, and we’re going to model to parents things they can do when they’re reading with their child, focusing on those foundational reading skills … teaching them how to enjoy reading.”
Each child will be able to take home a book and there will be free resources available for parents to take with them as well.
The Learn With Us Bus is a joint project between the United Way of St. Charles and St. Charles Parish Public Schools that began in 2019. It is a mobile family education resource for parents, similar to the elementary school Family Centers. The bus provides books, toys and games for children of preschool age through second grade, internet access for parents to access school forms and information and information about additional community resources available to St. Charles Parish residents.
Smith said one of the goals of events like Saturday’s is to align educational methods between schools and parents – the latter, after all, are the first teachers of a child.
“We’re trying to help align how parents are teaching and talking to their students, their children, the way that they’re going to be instructed at the school site,” Smith said. “We’re modeling what it looks like and sounds like when we’re interacting with our children, what language we should be using that’s going to transfer into our classroom … how we read, then stop and ask questions along the way, and parents will ask what are some other types of questions we could ask (during reading).
“We want this to be an event where it’s comfortable for parents to be able to just come and – it’s fun, but it’s educational. And we want parents to know that we’re here before they actually enter the school doors.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, students who enter kindergarten ready are twice as likely to master reading and math by the third grade. Researchers have found birth to age 5 to be a critical learning window and that early learning leads to improved brain development.
Enticing children of that age to embrace learning can prove challenging, of course, but the bus helps in great regard here.
“The bus looks like a big toy to them,” said Smith. “And we (gear presentations) in a shorter way … it’s very interactive but also purposeful and intentional.”
Building a comfort level for the students as they prepare to enter a classroom setting for the first time is also critical. And that can go for the parents, too.
“These kinds of events are kind of an opportunity for your child to be able to explore what it feels like and looks like when you’re in a small group … it kind of puts parents at ease before (the children) get into that school building to adjust themselves,” Smith said.
Questions about any of the upcoming events may be directed to Lacy Powers at lpowers@wearescpps.org.
