Some youngsters don’t have the skills to sit in a desk, raise their hand when they want to talk and learn to listen as the teacher teaches.
But a group of Clarksdale Municipal School District pre-K students are learning those skills this summer and it will have them ready for the classroom this fall.
After receiving Coahoma County Early Learning Collaborative funds, the Clarksdale Municipal School District was able to hold a remediation enrichment support program for 22 pre-K students at Heidelberg Elementary School for 19 days from June 7 to July 1. Four teachers were involved with the program to help students prepare for kindergarten at Heidelberg, Booker T. Washington and George H. Oliver or Kirkpatrick Health & Medical Science Magnet elementary school.
“We were making sure that because of COVID they had those skills so they would be kindergarten ready when they get to kindergarten in the upcoming school year,” said CMSD assistant superintendent Dr. Toya Matthews.
“We had one person that was making sure that the activities were number one, evidence based, because that’s what MDE looks for. They want to make sure that they’re evidence based activities that they’re doing and that the strategies continue for them to go into kindergarten. That’s primarily what our focus was to make sure they were ready to go into kindergarten.”
Emma Jackson was the coordinator of the program.
“They got an opportunity to do things that other students weren’t able to do this year because of the pandemic,” Jackson said. “This is their first time in a classroom with face-to-face instruction. They got a chance to change centers, transition and socialization skills. ELA skills and math skills were also included. We had crafts and we made learning as fun as possible.”
Jackson said many of the pre-K students were behind on socialization skills.
“Because they were at home and they were not used to socializing as they would do with their peers and the face-to-face regular classroom,” Jackson said. “So they got the opportunity to socialize with students of their own age going to centers, make transitions. They gained a lot of things they weren’t able to get because they were at home.”
She specifically said students were not accustomed to sharing with their peers.
“Sharing is one thing that they learned a lot about,” Jackson said. “They were in their own homes. They were used to having their own things. So once they came into our classroom, they had to understand that we share, we cooperate and we work together. So that was one thing they really got to gain a lot of insight.”
It was an even bigger challenge for children who did not have brothers and sisters.
“We had some in there that are coming from homes where they’re the only baby,” Jackson said. “So that was a big challenge for them, but during this 19-day period, they did make adjustments.”
The CMSD is the lead partner with the Coahoma County Early Learning Collaborative program, but the other schools involved also had remediation enrichment support programs this summer.
“So with the collaborative, we have the Clarksdale Municipal School District, Coahoma Opportunities Head Start and St. Elizabeth’s (Catholic School), but they each had their own programs,” Matthews said. “So this was the one for the Clarksdale Municipal School District.”
While the COVID pandemic is coming to an end, Matthews hopes the CMSD is able to have a similar program next year.
“We’re going to work really hard to make sure funds are available for this every year because we see the awesome experience they had and the parents were just so happy they were able to send them because they see the difference that their child had progressed into for the upcoming school year,” Matthews said.
The remediation enrichment support program had a fun day last Thursday. There was a short awards presentation where children had the opportunity show parents what they learned. Children played on bouncers, ate popcorn, had snow cones with choice flavors, pizza and bubble machines.
“We were just excited to offer this opportunity to the students,” Matthews said.
Jackson agreed.
“It’s been a joy,” Jackson said. “We’ve had a great experience here this summer.”
