Each year, Idaho children begin kindergarten without basic school readiness skills. Libraries have a critical role to play in their communities by helping families support young children and help them get ready for kindergarten. This series of one-hour workshops contains activities that strengthen family relationships while focusing on skills that can help young children prepare for school.
The workshops use a program-in-a-box model: each program plan contains activities to be facilitated by library staff, including research-based talking points, and some supplies. Each family that participates in a Kindergarten Readiness Outreach Workshop will receive a school supply kit and 25 Vroom(TM) Tip Cards to continue learning at home.
- These are outreach workshops. They are designed to be held outside the library to help reach families that aren’t regular library users. Potential outreach sites include: daycare facilities, local employers, community centers, churches, WIC offices or other social services agencies, laundromats, etc.
- Workshops should be limited to around 10 families. Entire families are invited to participate in the workshops. Limiting the number of families to around 10 means that there will be 20 – 30 people at each workshop, which is a manageable amount for the activities involved. Also, we want library staff to develop relationships with participants, which can be difficult with a larger crowd.
- There are five different workshop plans from which to choose. Each plan focuses on a different early literacy practice – sing, talk, read, write, and play. Libraries are encouraged to apply to host workshops that best address the needs/interests of their communities and staff capabilities. Libraries can apply to host just one workshop or up to five. For the pilot year, we are limiting applications to five workshops total per library branch. In order to give us enough time to process and mail your request, you must apply for materials at least 3 weeks prior to your outreach event.
- We’ll send you some supplies. Each program requires unique supplies. ICfL will provide some supplies that most libraries would not have on hand (like box cutters or plastic eggs), and libraries are responsible for the remaining supplies (like pens, scratch paper, and books for reading demonstrations).
- Each family gets a school supply kit containing the following: