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Schools

Students Get a Jump On Kindergarten in 'Ready, Set Grow!' Camp

School District 197, in combination with the East Metro Integration District, offered a free two-week kindergarten readiness camp for children entering kindergarten this fall

In one class at Garlough Environmental Magnet School they were making paper butterflies, in another they were listening to a story, and in a third, the kindergarteners-to-be got to pet a real, live hedgehog.

More than 150 young students got a head start on fall kindergarten through a new initiative launched this summer between the East Metro Integration District, the West St. Pul-MendotaHeights-Eagan School District and four other area school districts: White Bear Lake, Forest Lake, St. Paul and Roseville.

The free, two-week Kindergarten Readiness Camp was designed to provide fun, hands-on and exciting activities to prepare children for kindergarten. The program sought kindergarteners-to-be who hadn’t been in preschool or any formal school setting before.

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“We wanted to give them a boost, to let them be more prepared for starting the school year,” said Charles Duarte, gifted and talented coordinator for District 197.

A combination of 65 students from the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan District, along with students from St. Paul, took the camp at Garlough Aug. 8-19. An additional 90 students participated at Harambee Community Cultures/Environmental Science School in Maplewood.

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The students went to school from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays for the two-week program.

“This is really about giving kids an opportunity they may not have had before,” said Kathy Griebel, principal of Harambee School and an administrator at the East Metro Integration District. “And so it really is about leveling the playing field so when they come into kindergarten they know some things about how school operates.

“They know about getting a lunch in the lunchroom,” Griebel added. “They know about sitting in a circle with your teacher. They know about walking in the hallway quietly. ”

The program is funded through the East Metro Integration District.

The students also learned the do’s and don’ts about riding the school bus.

The program is about learning social skills as well as academic ones, both Duarte and Gribel said.

“It’s about helping kids interact with each other, it’s about can they transition from one experience to another,” Griebel said. “And are they excited and enthusiastic about school. That’s really one of our main outcomes.”  

The children were taught by certified teachers essential kindergarten readiness skills, program administrators said. The “Ready, Set, Grow!” program featured small class sizes, free breakfast and lunch, free bus transportation, parent resources and “transition” backpacks.

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