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Preschoolers’ hands shoot up in the air when they want to answer a question. They grow quiet, sit down and form a line, all upon instruction. These are just a few responses and behaviors students learned this summer at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center (ESLC) Kindergarten Readiness Camp. 

The free, four-week summer camp, held at Gordon Bush Elementary School in East St. Louis, ended Tuesday, July 11. The program was designed for children who have little preschool experience and are at risk of falling behind their classmates. This was the second year that the ESLC has offered the camp. 

“This year, the camp focused on executive functions that included cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control and memory,” said Martha Latorre, PhD, Kindergarten Readiness curriculum director, associate professor in SIUE’s Department of Teaching and Learning, and director of the Early Childhood Education program. 

“The importance of developing these skills in the young child cannot be understated,” said Shane Kennedy, ESLC coordinator of New Project Initiatives. “Research has shown that children, who demonstrate a lack of self-regulation in structured learning situations, have lower literacy scores and end-of-year cognitive skills in kindergarten and first grade.” 

“Executive functioning skills are the driving force in how we organize and connect information in the brain. During camp, our children learned skills that will not only help them in kindergarten, but also throughout their entire schooling careers,” he added. 

Teachers chosen for the Kindergarten Readiness Camp had strong curriculum knowledge, according to Adrienne Kaesberg, Kindergarten Readiness director and school readiness coach for SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start. “They were experienced enough to develop the lesson plans from the framework and curriculum we gave them.” 

Early childhood instructors came from the East St. Louis School District #189 and SIUE Head Start/Early Head Start. They included teachers, teacher’s assistants and early childhood development apprentices. 

Shavonda Willis, SIUE Head Start/Early Head teacher’s assistant, sat with a group of boys and girls to teach them the meaning of patterns. On poster board paper, Willis had drawn a blue circle, a black circle, a blue circle and a black circle. After the last black circle, she asked: “What comes next?” 

“A blue circle,” was the reply from Sequoia Stephens. 

“The children are ready for kindergarten,” Kaesberg said, “and I believe they are going to do great.” 

The ESLC Kindergarten Readiness Camp was made possible by a generous gift from the Boeing Company, said ESLC Executive Director Jesse Dixon.    

Photo:
Students and staff at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center (ESLC) Kindergarten Readiness Camp