Karrie McCurdy Pine Grove Learning Center Director
We’re back! Teachers and staff at Pine Grove Learning Center warmly welcomed back students to the 2018-2019 school year. It’s going to be an exciting and amazing year with the changes we have in place.
We kicked everything off with an open house luncheon that was held on Monday, August 27; the event was well attended by current students and families as well as two new ones — yes, we are growing!
At the open house, we were excited to announce that our endeavor to have a year-round calendar had finally been approved in the final hours. The calendar has the same 180 days as the Nay Ah Shing calendar, but is spread out through the entire year with approximately 45 days on/15 days off, eliminating a three-month summer break.
Why do this, you ask? Studies have shown that over the summer, children forget four to six weeks of learning and come back to school having to play catch up for at least the first month. With the achievement gap between Native and white students being so great, year-round school is one strategy to close this gap.
Along with the calendar, we are also involved with a program called Achieve 3000. This program customizes reading lessons to each individual student. Research has shown using this program two times per week for 30 minutes greatly increases a child’s reading comprehension, accuracy, and fluency. We have made the commitment to utilize the program four to five times per week.
Over the summer, another change to Pine Grove is a new kitchen. We plan to utilize it to prepare meals for family events to enable us to work with a cooking curriculum called “Edible Education.” Each month it features two lessons, including information about the food item, a recipe, and take-home information. To quote the program creators: “Our lessons provide an opportunity to teach children that healthy foods and cooking them is fun. The recipes will empower them with the skills and confidence to make fresh, healthy dishes for a life- time of healthier living.”
If all of this sounds exciting to you and you are interested in enrolling your child, please stop by and pick up an enrollment packet. We are located at 63842 Ojibwe Road in Sandstone. See you then!