SUMMER LEARNING:
A Real Joy
Why is everyone talking about the Kindergarten Readiness
Bags? It’s because they are stuffed with summer learning
and school readiness; two of ve pillars the national Campaign
for rade-Level Reading and the Suncoast Campaign for rade-
Level Reading focus on to close the gap in #LReading.
Research tells us that academic achievement increases
when parents are engaged in their children’s education. The
Kindergarten Readiness bags include many great tools parents
and children can share together. By using the resources provided
in the bags, parents can create fun learning experiences for their
children to help prepare them for school.
Each brightly colored tote bag contains magnetic letters, jumbo
crayons, ashcards, books, drawing pads, erasable alphabet
charts, and a pamphlet entitled,
The 201 Summer Book Challenge is just around the corner!
The challenge – for all children to read at least six books during
the summer. Summer camp providers, library systems, school
systems, summer recreation locations, foundations, teaching
artists, and even restaurants will work collaboratively
to provide high quality summer learning opportunities to all
children, especially those from low-income families.
This collaboration between the Suncoast Campaign for rade-Level
Reading and summer providers will encourage children to keep the
love of learning burning brightly throughout the summer months.
Participating students will be provided with the ofcial Suncoast
Summer Book Challenge Log and a Family uide. As children nish
books and enter them into their logs, they will be awarded brightly
colored silicone bracelets, a different color for each book read.
The summer camp providers will encourage and motivate the
students to complete at least six books to help combat the loss of
reading prociency during the summer, often called “Summer Slide.”
2017 was the inaugural year for the Summer Book Challenge
with 91 students successfully completing at least six books.
In 2017, 22 participating sites reported reading a total of 10,730
books! All participants were proud of the achievements of the
rst challenge, and are doubly excited as we look at the horizon
for summer 201. Already, the Suncoast Campaign for rade-
Level Reading has more than 50 providers ready to participate.
• To get involved in the 2018 Summer Book Challenge, contact
us at info@GradeLevelReadingSuncoast.net.
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