OUR PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES
LITERACY INITIATIVES
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CLASSROOM LIBRARY ADOPTIONS
Fact: Kids in classrooms without classroom libraries read 50% less than kids in classrooms with libraries.
KG’s Kids supports students by building classroom libraries. There are three different types of adoptions that KG’s Kids supports: initial classroom library start-up, racially diverse library adoption and class novel study.
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KG's KARNIVAL OF BOOKS
Fact: When children have a home library as little as 20 books of their own, they achieve three or more years of schooling than children who don’t have any books at home.
KG’S Kids supports students by hosting free book fairs for students to add to their home libraries. Additionally, a free carnival is held for students and families in the evening.
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ONE SCHOOL ONE BOOK
Fact: The best predictor of future education achievement and life success is reading ability. Based on research, Guthrie found that engaged reading can overcome traditional barriers to reading achievement, including gender, parental education and income.
KG’s Kids supports the one school one book initiative where every student in the school reads the same book at the same time.
Community Outreach
Back to School Drive
Fact: Studies have proven that when students have their own school supplies, their grades and classroom behavior improve, and they become more excited about school and learning.
School supplies affect student learning by simply enabling them to get work done. In the classroom, proper supplies can mean the difference between absorbing a concept or leaving it behind. School supplies make class more efficient. Teachers in low-income areas often struggle through lessons as students must share their pencils, scissors, and other supplies, dragging one activity on longer than planned. To make the best use of class time, each kid needs their own items on hand. Supplies also indirectly benefit students by freeing teachers to pursue whatever creative project they think of. Ample supplies open things up for exciting new learning. This variety is vital for kids who struggle to internalize information through conventional teaching methods.Because school supplies play such a big role in preparing students to be successful in the upcoming school year, KG’s Kids is committed to ensuring the students of IPS have what they need for a productive start to the school year.
For this reason, KG’s Kids over the last two years have donated over 1500 backpacks to local IPS schools.
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Teacher Literacy Support and Professional Development
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Summer Slide Backpack Initiative
Research by James Kim shows that students from low-income families are disproportionately affected by the summer slide.
Summer learning loss is cumulative; over time it can create a gap of two and up to five years by the time students reach high school.
Kim’s research shows that shows that more than half of the gap in reading scores between low-income 9th graders and their middle-income peers could be attributed to differences in summer learning accumulated between first and fifth grade.
Kim also found that younger children are prone to the most learning loss because they’re at a crucial stage in their development.
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Classroom Transformations
Room transformations are highly engaging, relevant to student’s interests and encourage both student participation and attendance. Students have been known to say that this is ”the best day ever,” or even, “this has been the best party day at school,” all while engaging in rigorous curriculum.
When students are engaged with learning, they can focus attention and energy on mastering the task, persist when difficulties arise, build supportive relationships with adults and peers, and connect to their school (Wang & Eccles, 2012a, 2012b).
Therefore, student engagement is critical for successful learning (Appleton, Christenson, & Furlong, 2008).
Increasing student engagement is a critical aspect of many intervention efforts aimed at reducing school dropout rates (Archambault, Janosz, Morizot, & Pagani, 2009; Christenson & Reschly, 2010; Wang & Fredricks, 2014).
