Pop-up classrooms return to TCMU-Spartanburg to help prepare kids for kindergarten

Upstate Parent
·2 min read

Help little ones get ready for kindergarten with the help of Pop-Up Classrooms at TCMU-Spartanburg. This free 8-week program is designed to teach rising kindergarteners (rising 4K and 5K) important skills for the classroom, such as raising their hand to ask a question or using their inside voice.

The program runs from June 5 – July 31, one day per week at 1 or 3 p.m. Monday – Friday. Students and their caregivers are required to attend one 1-hour class, one day a week and can choose from a 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. time slot. Spaces are limited.

Summer pop-up classrooms at The Childrens' Museum of the Upstate im Spartanburg help prepare children for kindergarten.
Summer pop-up classrooms at The Childrens' Museum of the Upstate im Spartanburg help prepare children for kindergarten.

To provide an equitable experience, applications will be assessed on a point system based on a variety of factors. Program participation includes weekly classes, take home activities and free museum admission for each participant and one caregiver.

TCMU reports that research shows that only 27 percent of South Carolina public school kindergarteners entered the school year with sufficient skills, knowledge and abilities to engage with kindergarten-level instruction. Pop-Up

Classrooms, which are based on the South Carolina Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, The Spartanburg Academic Movement's Early Development Instrument (EDI), and South Carolina First Step's Profile of a Ready Kindergartner, are designed to help children with this important life transition.

Each classroom session focuses on a different skill necessary for young learners to be successful in a real classroom and is structured similar to a normal school day.

TCMU-Spartanburg's museum classroom will be set up like a real classroom to help familiarize young learners with this new type of environment. Children will have the opportunity for structured and unstructured play and take-home activities each week to continue learning at home.

Pop-Up Classrooms at TCMU-Spartanburg are partially funded by South Carolina First Steps.

Participants must sign up for the program in advance at www.tcmupstate.org/spartanburg/popupclassrooms.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: TCMU-Spartanburg offers summer pop-up classrooms for kindergarteners