Community Corner

Stamfords Youngest Students to Learn "At the Beach and In the Sea"

In time for summer, Fairfield County Community Foundation's $20,000 grant to Stamford Achieves will support a science literacy and activities for kids in K-3.

Stamford Achieves, a nonprofit working to close the achievement gap in Stamford Public Schools, was awarded a $20,000 grant from Fairfield County Community Foundation (FCCF) to help fund a summer education program, "At the Beach and In the Sea."

The science-oriented educational and enrichment program begins July 8th and will accommodate 140 students from the Chester Addison Community Center and Neon of Stamford.

"Children get engaged in activities that raise their science knowledge, as well as their literacy and reading grade levels," explained Linda Levy, executive director of Stamford Achieves in a release.

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Certified teachers, along with staff from the Community Centers, will provide science literacy instruction and activities that follow the Connecticut State Core Science Guidelines for grades K-3.  

Created in 2009, the summer program has engaged children through observation, questioning, experimentation, crafts, reading, educational trips to SoundWaters, and Thinking maps, which, according to the release is a successful tool that teaches thinking and problem solving using children's graphic, visual and organizational skills.  

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SoundWaters provides hands-on activities at its Coastal Education Center at Cove Beach in Stamford, including identifying ecology, collecting marine creatures, and observing live animals.  

Stamford Achieves has found that 83 percent of the students have maintained or increased their DRA scores, according to the release, and according to Levy, who expressed gratitude to FCCF, "These positive findings support the importance of using 'out of school time' to improve the skills of children caught in the achievement gap."

At the Beach and In the Sea" begins on July 8 and runs four days a week, two hours a day, through August 2, 2013.


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