United Way ‘Page the Puppy’ program helps kids prepare for kindergarten

ELKHART, Ind. – Crossroads United Way is helping incoming kindergartners in Goshen Community Schools by introducing a new program designed to prepare them for school.

The “Page the Puppy” program is part of a new kindergarten readiness initiative designed to engage families and help improve skill development in incoming kindergartners.

“Page” is the star of a series of four bilingual books, in Spanish and English, and activity kits being distributed for free to future kindergartners and their families at Goshen Schools.

“Every student should enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed. Page the Puppy puts free, easy-to-use resources in the home of every incoming kindergarten student,” said Mona Livingston, Director of Community Impact at Crossroads United Way.

“Page the Puppy” activities focus on skills that local teachers and high-quality early childhood educators deemed important for incoming students to learn.

The top ten skills were selected for Page and serve as “Page Pauses” throughout the book to help guide additional practices and activities.

Goshen families can get a Page kit when they sign their child up for kindergarten. Students will also get to build their own Page the Puppy at the GCS Kindergarten Blastoff.

This program is sponsored by Early Learning Indiana, Keystone RV, and PNC Bank.

Crossroads United Way plans to expand this program to other local districts in 2022.

For more information on the program, click here.

Page the Puppy books were written by Debbie Ackerman and illustrated by Rebecca Skalsky.