Thursday, June 14, KCPT held its fourth Raising Readers Professional Development Workshop at the station. The workshop, which was titled Outdoor Fun and Learning, was geared towards early childhood providers. Instructor Shari Williams of The Family Conservancy gave participants a hands-on, minds-on introduction to environmental education, outdoor exploration and nature play for early childhood.
A Kansas city Mayor has lots of priorities in office. Fixing streets and sewer systems. Creating jobs. Stemming violent crime. But for Sly James, ensuring every child is reading at grade level by the third grade is a more important goal than any other.
That’s why he’s been pushing the Turn the Page KC reading project. The effort got a big boost recently thanks to a New York publishing house which donated 10,000 titles to this multi-year effort that puts books into the hands of Kansas City, Missouri children just as they have started their long summer vacations.
Here is a brief introduction to the project from the Mayor’s website:
WORDGIRL – “Tobey’s Robot Summer”
All week long WORDGIRL saves the day in five robotic adventures, including the premiere of “Road Rage, Anger, and Fury/ By Jove, You’ve Wrecked My Robots!”
Watch weekdays at 3:30pm.
“Road Rage, Anger, and Fury/By Jove, You’ve Wrecked My Robots!” *NEW* – June 11
Feeling at the end of her rope and fed up with all of the city’s traffic, Lady Redundant Woman creates an army of copies in order to block all of the other cars and get her own carried out of traffic. Can Becky successfully trick her family into believing that a Becky balloon is actually her so that WordGirl can get out into traffic to defeat Lady Redundant Woman?
With the hopes of exposing WordGirl’s true identity, Tobey takes a game about evil robots to Becky’s house. When the game turns out to be a real battle between actual robots, Becky must do what she can to save the city and keep WordGirl’s true identity a secret.
“Bummertime/The Homerun King “ – June 12
It’s the last day of summer and Becky just wants to read her favorite book in the hammock and play outside with her friends … but Tobey and his latest robot creation, Chronos, are getting in the way. She has to figure out how to stop crime and still enjoy her last day of vacation.
When TJ hits a home run during his baseball game that foils a crime he becomes The Home Run King, the city’s latest superhero. But when he starts to fight real crimes and gets in over his head, WordGirl has to step in and save the day.
“Bampy Battles Bots/Truth, Revision, and the Lexicon Way” – June 13
The Botsfords couldn’t be more excited to have Bampy, Becky and TJ’s grandfather, visit! Becky is thrilled to see him until he tells her that he used to fight robots better than WordGirl. When Tobey invents the ultimate invincible robot, will Bampy be able to help WordGirl save the day?
Mr. Big tries a new form of mind control by taking over the school’s newspaper, the “Daily Rag”. With his misleading articles and city-wide contests, Mr. Big threatens to reveal WordGirl’s secret identity.
“Have Snob, Will Travel/Tobey’s Playground Calamity”- June 14
Unable to choose the most valuable items to steal, The Butcher kidnaps Reginald the jeweler and uses him for his knowledge of fine artifacts. Amidst a fence painting contest, Becky must put her paint brush down so that WordGirl can rescue Reginald and stop the Butcher’s stealing spree.
Ms. Davis holds a recycling fundraiser contest to raise money for a new playground, which was destroyed by villains over the weekend. It will be dedicated in honor of the winner. Will Becky finally be recognized for her merits over WordGirl? Or will Tobey and his evil robots destroy the city in his quest to win?
“WordBot/Mt. Rushhere” – June 15
In order to get back at WordGirl for destroying his robots, Tobey builds a robot replica of WordGirl named WordBot. When WordBot gets jealous and turns against Tobey, WordGirl and Tobey are forced to team-up in order to defeat WordBot.
When all the grown-ups suddenly go missing, the kids take full advantage of an adult-free world. But as it starts to take a toll on them, WordGirl discovers that Mr. Big is using yet another mind control device to make all the adults build a tribute in his honor. WordGirl must destroy the machine and rescue the adults, but can she do it without Mr. Big’s help?
Gary Brock, Director of Education at KCPT, presented a workshop on June 2, 2012 entitled “Literacy and TV” to a group of early childhood teachers at the Educare Conference. The conference which was put on by LINC was held at the Kauffman Conference Center. Over 250 plus early childhood teachers were in attendence. Lenora Wuattoux, member of the KCPT CAB (Community Advisory Board), staffed the KCPT membership and resouces table and many people stopped by to pick up educational resources for early childhood from KCPT.
