East Cleveland, OH
Cuyahoga County Universal PreKindergarten – Starting Points
Shawna LeSure, Principal
slesure@eastclevelandschools.org
Play and Learn Family Sessions
Prospect Academy—like most schools—closed its doors in response to COVID-19 but continued remote instruction for all students. The faculty wanted to ensure that lessons were meaningful, enjoyable, and effective. They also wanted to continue to strengthen school and family partnerships.
Play and Learn Family Sessions supported a goal in the School Improvement Plan for reading and literacy instruction to prepare students to transition successfully to kindergarten. The Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) and school leaders and teachers wrote a proposal and were awarded funding from the Ohio Literacy Cooperative to conduct weekly Zoom meetings with parents and children on early literacy skills. They obtained and designed materials for family engagement activities with children to build reading readiness skills. Parents could choose to “attend” at either 9 a.m. or 6 p.m. to match their family schedules.
Parents picked up the books and materials for students at the school, including letter cards and stamps, building blocks, play dough, and number cubes. They also received crayons, markers, pipe cleaners and other items for activities.
Play and Learn activities linked to guided virtual tours of the Cleveland Zoo, Cleveland Aquarium, Holden Arboretum, and Natural History Museum. In some sessions, representatives from the public library conducted read-aloud sessions with participants. Participants were given free family passes to the Holden Arboretum and Natural History Museum to visit in person over the summer.
Teachers guided parents and students in each lesson to use books and materials in ways that mirrored the teachers’ class lessons. Then, parents and students could use and enjoy the books and materials on their own at home. If parents lacked the technology to join Play and Learn sessions, the school and community worked to obtain laptops, tablets, and hotspots for these students and parents. One parent noted, “We learned that we could interact and learn outside of a classroom.”
Prospect Academy was fortunate to earn a grant to develop and conduct Play and Learn sessions to increase family engagement with students at home. Other schools may adapt the design at low- or no-cost to enable parents to support students’ reading readiness for kindergarten.
Read more about Play and Learn Family Sessions in Promising Partnership Practices 2021.
