St. Landry teaches code writing, how the heart works and more: Preparing students for 2022-23

LEBEAU — Kennette Toussaint calls out a letter from a card on top of the stack in her hand. She follows the letter with the sound it makes and waits for her students to fill in her pause with a word that begins with the letter.

"K is for kangaroo," Toussaint says.

"And my name, too!" a little boy shouts from a blue chair.

"That's right, Karter," Toussaint praises him.

Karter wears another K-word on his T-shirt, which reads, "kindness is my superpower." He is one of 12 preschoolers enrolled in the school district's summer program at Lebeau Head Start.

His class of 4- and 5-year-olds are placing red paper dots over the letters their teacher calls out until their card is covered. Then they shout "bingo!"

This site serves the communities of Melville, Palmetto, Lebeau and Morrow and is one of six in Kindergarten Prep Camp sites for the youngest students in the parish. Students in K-8 are taking part in Camp Accelerate at 16 elementary and middle schools in the district.

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The camp-style summer school began last year as an effort across the state to address learning loss and other difficulties caused by the pandemic. It follows the accelerated model, which differs from traditional remediation by connecting unfinished learning to new content and integrates the two together, according to district leaders. 

St. Landry Parish is wrapping up the second year of this summer learning program this week. Kids have been meeting four days a week since June 6 to learn to write code, how a heart works and  to identify letters, numbers, shapes and colors.

Toussaint, a pre-K teacher at Northeast Elementary during the school year, and Renesse Carey, a teacher's assistant at Melville Head Start, are using games like bingo to work on alphabetic knowledge, comprehension, phonemic awareness and other literacy skills they need to be ready to start kindergarten this fall.

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They're also learning important social skills like no one wins every time and how to take turns. They sit in pairs in red, blue or yellow chairs pulled up to tiny tables. On the walls are sheets of paper where they practiced writing their names over and over and construction paper art projects with mountains made of colored sand.

Their classroom also includes play centers where the children can pretend to cook or put on plays. The playful environment helps the future kindergarteners get used to the structure and routine of school in a fun way.

"We want them to see we can have fun and still be learning," Toussaint said. "I love this age group, how they learn through play."

Contact children's issues reporter Leigh Guidry at Lguidry@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @LeighGGuidry.