U-46 panel focuses on getting ready for kindergarten

There may be years between a child entering kindergarten and graduating from high school, but those early years provide an important foundation for students to be successful in college and the workplace, early childhood educators in Elgin Area District U-46 said Monday.

So they’ve come up with a program to tell families, staff and the community what’s needed to prepare students for kindergarten.

The purpose of the program, Give Me Five!, is to reach the district’s goal of 98 percent of first-graders reading at grade level as outlined in the district’s Destination 2015 goals. Members of the Early Childhood Education Project Charter committee presented its plan to the school board Monday.

“We know that students reading at grade level after the first grade will be on track to be successful students and adults,” said Stephanie Hopkins, a preschool teacher at Independence School in Bartlett.

Give Me Five! encourages parents and caregivers to talk to, play with, read to, do things with, and register their child for kindergarten. The Give Me Five! initiative will align expectations for kindergarten readiness, create and expand learning opportunities for parents and students, and provide high expectations for students and staff.

“We want to communicate a common language, a common message about what it takes for a child to be ready for kindergarten,” Hopkins said.

To get the message out, the committee will work with local organizations like the YMCA, libraries and child care facilities. Billboards, fliers and community information sessions will also be used, said Julie Kallenbach, director of early learning initiatives in U-46.

“They all want to help students and this is helping us build relationships with (organizations),” Kallenbach said.

In addition, Hopkins said less than half the students that enter kindergarten in U-46 attended one of the district’s early childhood education programs.

“We need to find ways to reach underserved families and neighborhoods to close the achievement gap,” Hopkins said.