It was a gorgeous day to be outside on Wednesday July 25, which is why groups of children from different Michigan City Area Schools (MCAS) came out to participate in the Kindergarten Countdown held at Purdue North Central’s Born Learning Trail. MCAS collaborated with PNC and United Way’s Success By 6 program to make the event possible.
“Kindergarten Countdown is a program that children make the transition from preschool to kindergarten,” Success By 6 coordinator Leslie Johnson stated. “We brought them to the Born Learning Trail at PNC to get them outside interacting with nature itself.”
There are a total of ten Born Learning Trails across the region. The trail at PNC is special because it is the first trail to appear on a college campus. To find out more about the other Born Learning Trails, visit the Success By 6 website.
The kids had lots of fun. They learned hopscotch, sang songs, practiced sounds and the alphabet, learned about the different types of trees and plants along the Born Learning Trail and many of the kids got to see a live crawfish up close! Don’t worry, no one was pinched!
Nadia Dabagia, a kindergarten teacher from Joy Elementary School in Michigan City, was as pleased as the children.
"During the summertime, kids tend to forget what they learned during the school year. This helps to keep their minds fresh,” she said. “The kids are learning a lot and they are ready for kindergarten. PNC is one of the most beautiful campuses I’ve seen.”
The campus deserves the praise. Purdue North Central had the proud honor of being selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to be a recipient of the Community Engagement Classification in 2010. The Community Engagement Classification acknowledges universities and colleges who have a dedication to community engagement. This makes PNC one of only 311 other colleges and universities in the county to carry such and honor.
Laura Weaver is the Service Learning Coordinator for the Center for Service Learning and Leadership at PNC. She was in charge of the day’s events for the Kindergarten Countdown.
“Normally, we have the Kindergarten Countdown in the springtime with other organizations. It’s an extension of our service learning program, which means that students studying Early Childhood Education participate as well. We’ve had to reschedule three times due to weather, but everything turned out great! This is the first time it has been held in the summer. We love bringing kids here to PNC. It’s a great way to reach out to the community and it helps kids to not only interact with nature, but with adults and each other.”