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Five-year-old Taylor Hopkins gasped and her face brightened when, upon the sixth or seventh attempt, the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center (ESLC) Kindergarten Readiness Program student accomplished her task and got the right answer to her teacher’s persistent questioning of how to spin a small wooden top. 

Taylor is one of 32 students in the Kindergarten Readiness Program that is offering STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities and projects. The free summer camp, which began June 7 and will end July 3, runs from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. weekdays at the Vivian Adams Early Childhood Center, 501 Katherine Dunham Place in East St. Louis. Breakfast and lunch are served each day. 

This is the third year that the ESLC has offered the summer camp designed for children who have never attended preschool. 

“Our program makes sure that kids learn skills to be ready for kindergarten and life,” said Adrienne Kaesberg, school readiness coach with SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start. “We focus on executive functioning skills, such as persistence in the classroom and staying engaged.” 

“If you don’t put a red weight on it what will happen?” asked SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start teachers assistant Shavonda Willis, about the top that Taylor was unsuccessful in getting to spin. “Now when you put too much weight on it, what happens?” 

“It won’t spin,” a frustrated Taylor replied. 

“We have come up with engaging projects and activities that allow students to work on the process, think for themselves and put it into words,” said Martha Latorre, PhD, associate professor in SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior’s Department of Teaching and Learning and director of the Early Childhood Education program. 

Over a period of days, preschoolers worked on such STEM projects as building bird nests, making clay birds and fashioning papier-mâché eggs. 

“Besides persistence, working on projects over time also helps students with social and emotional skills, because they work together as a team,” offered Kaesberg. 

In addition, the program aligns with KIDS: Every Illinois Child Ready for Kindergarten, an observational tool that was developed to assist teachers and parents in understanding the developmental readiness of children upon kindergarten entrance. 

“Each day our lesson plan incorporates KIDS standards in the area of literacy, math, journal writing and outdoor gross motor skills,” said Latorre. 

Parents have been pleased with the results of the summer camp over the past three years, according to Kaesberg. 

“We have looked at a lot of qualitative data with parents from past years of the camp,” Kaesberg detailed. “Parents have said that as a result of the Kindergarten Readiness program, their children have been successful in kindergarten and in first grade.” 

“The SIUE East St. Louis Center has been providing this Kindergarten Readiness Camp for three years, and it is proving to be an impactful project on many levels,” said ESLC Executive Director Jesse Dixon. “We are harnessing the collective power of SIUE early childhood faculty, SIUE Head Start curriculum and teaching expertise, and East St. Louis School District 189’s faculty and community members to make innovations in how we teach young children executive functioning skills.” 

“Our partnership with the Boeing Company has also made this extraordinary project possible,” Dixon said. 

Photos:
Martha Latorre, PhD, associate professor in SIUE’s Department of Teaching and Learning and director of the Early Childhood Education program, gives instruction on making a “bird’s egg.” 

Michelle James, East St. Louis School District 189 kindergarten teacher, shows students how to start making letters for their name out of play dough.