KNPB Channel 5 Public Broadcasting for Northern Nevada

What is the Ready To Learn service?

The Ready To Learn service is a nationwide effort using on-air, online, and print resources to help parents, caregivers, and early childhood educators prepare children for success in school. In January 1997, KNPB launched its Ready To Learn service in northern Nevada and northeastern Nevada. This service was created especially for families and childcare providers – to help those who care for young children to encourage their natural curiosity and love of learning.

Why be involved?

KNPB Channel 5 is committed to serving children, families, and educators through free educational workshops, educational programming, free books, support materials for teachers and online resources.

Our mission as a station is to “enrich the lives of individuals and improve its community by focusing the power of media to advance education, culture, and citizenship.” (From KNPB’s mission statement, 2005)

Second only to parents, television is the most influential teacher in a young child’s life. Television can influence how a child learns, thinks, and acts. Young children need adults to help guide them to become smart media consumers. Selective viewing can contribute to school readiness. The Ready To Learn service seeks to help children get the most out of a program they watch.

Our Commitment

Ready To Learn combines television designed to teach with community outreach and innovative educational materials. This exciting blend of television services builds on the wonderful PBS programs families know and trust – such as Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Dinosaur Train – through:

• A daily broadcast of 9 hours of quality children’s educational programs targeting ages 2-12 • Breaks between the programs that deliver non-commercial, educational messages to help children build the skills they need to become successful learners • A series of free workshops for families and caregivers, focusing on intelligent television viewing and effective use of the television as an educational resource to extend learning through books and activities. Workshops are based on many of the PBS children’s programs, including Martha Speaks, sid the Science Kid, Curious George, Wordgirl, Sesame Street and Between the Lions. • Provide related print resources for children, parents, and caregivers • Provide free books for children who might not otherwise have them • Create partnerships with national and local community organizations such as childcare centers, schools, libraries, businesses, civic groups, and governmental agencies.

Together these resources help families, caregivers, and early childhood educators in our community use KNPB to help meet the national education goal that all children will begin school “Ready To Learn.” Children who are Ready To Learn become adults who love to learn. The Ready To Learn service reaches out to children and families to help them begin the journey of lifelong learning.

Workshops

As part our Ready To Learn service, we offer free training sessions and workshops for parents, grandparents, caregivers, and educators. Our Ready To Learn workshops are based on the VIEW, READ, DO philosophy.

Current workshops being offered include: Super Why!, Electric Co., Martha Speaks, and Parenting Counts. And beginning in January 2010, we will be offering the Young Writer’s Contest Workshop, where children will learn about story writing strategies. Children from K-3rd grade are encouraged to write and illustrate their own stories and enter them in the 2010 PBS KIDS GO Writer’s Contest, formally the Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. The Writers Contest encourages children across the country to explore the power of creativity by writing and illustrating their own stories. The local deadline for the contest is March 22, 2010. Find more about the contest online...

Links:

• pbs.org/readytolearn
• pbs.org/teachersource/prek2.htm
• pbskids.org
• pbskidsgo.org
• pbsparents.org
• pbs.org/wholechild
  

For more information, contact Brooke Dutton, at 775.784.4555 or brooke@knpb.org

Ready to Learn is presented with support from the Hart Foundation.