SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Community School Corporation will be expanding their pre-K program this fall from eight locations to fourteen, because current locations consistently have waiting lists.
The new locations are Coquillard, Edison, Darden, Monroe, Madison, and Wilson. The schools want parents to know about the expanded - and free- programs, so they can get everyone eligible signed up. There will be a pre-K enrollment event on Tuesday, May 12 from 3-7 p.m. inside the gymnasium at the Brown Administration Center.
Carol Draeger Thomas, the Principal of Early Childhood and Pre-K Program talked about the benefits of this program for children and why it's so important to have children start pre-k and not fall behind their peers as well as allowing children to find learning fun and creative:
"One of the reasons why I am super excited about the expansion is because we are able to level the playing field, meaning giving access to all of our students to learn at an early age, at age four. It means that they are getting a really strong start to learning, whether it's literacy, numeracy, just learning how to be learners in a classroom.
Because our pre-K program's model of active play, students learn how to work with other students. They basically are learning how to be students. And so, we set them up for success because they have started when they're really young. Learning, learning. How to be effective learners."
She also told us that students need early learning now, more than ever:
"More and more students are coming to kindergarten under prepared. Research is showing that they that the students should really know between 5 and 10,000 words by the time they enter kindergarten. And more and more, our children are struggling with being exposed to reading and learning. By opening up more pre-K classrooms, we are giving all of those students a jumpstart so that they are strong learners when they enter kindergarten. And that really, really matters because we want to start getting, we want to start having them understand the components of early literacy. And with pre-K, we are able to do that."
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