Family Literacy Council donates books to Carthage pre-K program

Feb. 5—CARTHAGE, Mo. — Teachers say a book donation to a Carthage School District prekindergarten program will help give children a boost with the start of their educational careers.

The Carthage Family Literacy Council bought approximately 330 books for the three classrooms of the Tiger Prep Academy at Columbian and Fairview elementary schools and delivered them to the students Friday.

Tiger Prep Academy teacher Brittiany Nixon said her students were excited to see them.

"It just puts more books in their hands for those who may not have these resources at home," Nixon said. "The Literacy Council offers books that they've been able to take and keep at home as well as this program, which will allow us to send more books back and forth between home and school on a daily basis."

Julie Brownfield, a kindergarten teacher in the Carthage School District for 31 years who retired and joined the Carthage Family Literacy Council Board, said these books are in addition to the books kids may take home from the school library every week. and these books will belong to the Tiger Prep Academy teachers.

"I think it's going to mean that they get to have books at home more than just the library book they check out every week," Brownfield said. "I can see the teachers sending home a book bag full of books the students get to keep for a week to read, then bring back and get a new bag of books next week. I know that a lot of the titles are English and Spanish, so we're helping our non-English-speaking families also. Just the opportunity to have books in your hand will help expand their knowledge even more. You can see how excited they are. They love it."

About the academy

Nixon said the academy is a place for children who are almost ready for kindergarten to get some experience in school without the stress of a full kindergarten curriculum.

She said it allows children a year in school to develop social, emotional and academic skills in a small classroom with a teacher and a paraprofessional.

Class sizes are limited to 15 so students get more one-on-one attention from a teacher than they might in a larger class.

"This is a transitional kindergarten classroom," Nixon said. "This is the fourth year for Carthage R-9, and we saw a real need for it. I taught kindergarten for 15 years before moving to this position. This program allows for some of that extra time they need to build and be ready, academically and socially and emotionally, ready to go on to kindergarten.

"And we've really seen some growth in these students. It does make them ready when they go to kindergarten with their peers."

More books, more learning

Jeanne Goolsby, vice president of the Carthage Family Literacy Council board, said the council has worked with the Carthage Parents as Teachers program for years to get more books in students hands.

"That's our big partnership in town," Goolsby said. "We give thousands of new books to kids through Parents as Teachers. (The parent educators) take a new book for every in-home visit they do so the kids have a library of their own at home. and a lot of kids have never had that. Research has shown that the time you spend cuddling with a child, holding them in your lap while you're reading to them is so beneficial as bonding time between parents and kids, starting at birth."

Goolsby said the council is always looking for ways to get more books to children. The group also hands out books to parents of newborn children at area hospitals and it stocks the seven or so "Little Free Libraries" set up in front of schools, the Fair Acres Family Y and Grace Episcopal Church in Carthage.

"This is a new opportunity for us because we got some retired teachers on our board," Goolsby said. "Julie (Brownfield) had the idea and knew where some needs were and then we ... got permission to do this and we connected with the teachers to let them lead the way."

Goolsby said the Carthage Community Foundation gave the council a $1,000 grant to fund this new program.

She said the council asked the Tiger Prep Academy teachers to tell them what books they wanted.

"The teachers actually shopped for the books and chose their own titles so they would get what the kids actually need," Goolsby said. "We still have a fund for them to shop again hopefully this summer."