2004-2005 Awards
The Let?s Get Moving Active Play Kit will provide a fun and energizing way for children and parents to share healthy exercises and movement. Balls, jump ropes, game hoops, an obstacle course and bean bags will provide developmentally appropriate activities to improve gross motor skills, strengthen muscles and increase coordination.

Pieces of Creativity will enable students to learn about the history, designs, patterns and making of quilts. Students will use a quilt design software program to design a quilt to meet individual, family and community needs. They will calculate yardage, write instructions, print templates, estimate costs, cut pieces and assemble the final project. Through a reflective writing activity, students will express their feelings about quilts.

A collection of seventeen soft and loveable plush characters accompanying some favorite storybooks will enhance the reading and learning experience. Adopt-A-Character will also include adoption papers and family participation activities to spark creative thinking, address various learning styles and make story time an enjoyable experience.

Take Home Learning Packs are a cross-curriculum program of sixteen backpacks. Each backpack contains reusable cards with step-by-step activities and skill-building materials. Activities will include practice with reading comprehension, following directions, analyzing and recording data, and demonstrating solutions through manipulative use. Every pack includes a book that reinforces concepts and encourages at-home reading.

Bal-A-Vis-X is a series of Balance/Auditory/Vision exercises of varied complexity, most of which are deeply rooted in rhythm. These exercises require full-body coordination and focused attention. The program utilizes beanbags, racquetballs, balance boards, and multiple principles and activities from Educational Kinesiology. The goal of this program is to help students improve effectiveness in all areas of academic endeavor, including reading comprehension, oral reading fluency, spelling, creative writing, math computation, problem solving, memory, accuracy, focus and attention. Students will also develop greater physical coordination, agility and confidence in their own physical performance.

Bags of Nature will allow students to enhance their empathy for other living creatures, increase awareness of our environment and participate in mathematical measuring activities as they explore our natural world through this take-home program. Bird feeders and garden tools will enable families to explore nature through active exploration, investigation, comparison and cooperation as they become more aware of our environment.

Mathematics is a broad and encompassing curriculum. Growing with Mathematics is sequenced for the development of mathematic concepts for preschool students. It provides a balance between teacher-directed activities and free-choice activities.

Literacy Workshops is a collection of projects and activities that promote literacy skills and development. The workshops will include: library, computer, letter/sound and author. Literacy experiences will be built into each workshop as students are immersed in language. The literacy workshops will give students the opportunity to practice literacy skills through meaningful experiences, social interaction and language use. Another major focus is for students to develop an interest in reading, to associate it with pleasure and to ultimately read by choice.

Write from Anywhere will utilize an Interwrite board to allow students and teachers to use this wireless tablet to interact with a projected computer image accessing a wealth of information available on the Internet, making annotations, running stream video, or using other instructional software. The board can be used for class participation in making graphic organizers, classifying sentences, modeling and diagramming science and math activities, using Internet resources and many other situations across the curriculum.

Students will be actively involved in various science center experiments to target listening, speaking, spelling, reading and writing skills though KIDS: Kindergarteners Inquire and Discover Science. These science centers will actively involve students in observing and comparing, matching and classifying, identifying and labeling, counting and measuring, ordering and sequencing, and following directions. T.O.T.E. (take one this evening) science discovery packs, exploration tables, kaleidoscopes, rain sticks, magnets, color paddles, modeling sand and shatterproof mirrors will give students tools they need to conduct investigations, gather information and make hands-on discoveries.

Our senses work together to form a picture of who we are physically, emotionally, academically, and behaviorally. The sensory experiences include touch, movement, body awareness, sight, sound, and the pull of gravity. The brain process of organizing and interpreting this information is called Sensory Integration. Most sensory integration in children occurs automatically. But for others, it does not develop as efficiently as it should which produces overly sensitive or under reactive children. This program will provide sensory integration tools such as weighted vests, weighted gloves, a sensory sleeve, visual timer disks, and a metronome to serve as interventions for behavioral and/or learning issues.

Literacy Kits will include books, activity materials, finger plays, songs and journals to provide an opportunity to develop a child?s literacy skills through reading and associated activities. Providing family activities that incorporate fun with learning will also enhance parent/child relationships.

Improving children's reading skills is a top priority for leaders at all levels of government and business, as well as parents and teachers across the nation. There is a national initiative to help every child in every state become a successful reader. One Book?Two Books?Three Books?Four will encourage and inspire students to read for pleasure through the acquisition of additional reading materials.

Children will learn about healthy food and fitness by using books, role playing with plush characters, making nutritional snacks and participating in a variety of physical movement activities that relate to each lesson. Berry, Berry Good! And Book Cooks Nutrition will encourage children and their families to develop healthy eating and physical movement habits as well as providing ideas for positive role models.