Opportunity

It is great that we have the opportunity to use Kindles at school. We were wondering how many schools in the United States have this opportunity? Or in the St. Louis area? Does anyone know of any around here?

Kindles in the Library and Classroom

The Kindles have become a very important part of the library AND in the classroom. The mastery of early literacy skills is the foundation for the development of strong fluency and comprehension skills. City Academy’s junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten, and first grade teachers use curricula developed by The Pleasant Rowland Reading Program, which help students to master early literacy skills and to begin to work on the five major areas of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Building on the early foundations of literacy, students in the second and third grade learn through guided reading in small groups of four to six students, an approach which is intended to refine decoding skills and improve fluency and comprehension. In addition to guided reading books published by Scholastic, students in these grades read supplementary nonfiction texts published by Steck-Vaughn. Students in grade three read supplementary novels. Reading instruction in grades four through six focuses on novels and Jamestown Education’s Critical Reading Series. Novels may include titles such as The Odyssey for Boys and Girls, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Hobbit, Animal Farm, The House on

Mango Street

, The Wind in the Willows, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

THANK YOU JACK!!!!

We LOVE our Kindles!!!

City Academy students started using Kindles in January. We have 11 Kindles and our goal is 11 more with covers so each student in the 3rd grade can start using them in class. Jack just raised another $825 so we are well on our way!!

Launching The Kindle Project!

The kids at City Academy have officially launched The Kindle Project!! They started using the Kindles recently and hopefully they will be able to post their thoughts and reactions about the Kindles here soon!  Check out the photo!!!

p.s.....raised some more money over the holidays for The Kindle Project at City Academy so I'm hopeful that the project will keep on growing!

What is The Kindle Project?

Lots of schools don't have the things they need for kids--like books! Kindles help kids and schools at the same time.  Once a book is on a Kindle, it can be stored there forever and it doesn't wear out or need to be replaced.  Lots of kids can read it!  Librarians won't have to spend as much money on books and can spend more time working with kids on their book choices and stuff like that. Kindles are lightweight and easy to carry too!

Where Did the Idea Come From?
The other day I went for a visit with my mom to a school in St. Louis called City Academy.  We heard that they needed some books for their library so I pulled together some of my  books and brought them down to the school.   The lady at the school, Ginger, was really nice and thanked us alot.  The school is neat.  When I was at the school, I asked Ginger if the kids at City Academy used Kindles.  She said that the school didn't have the money for those and the library budget was tight.  I told her how much I used my Kindle and how I really like to read now. I don't know why, I just do!  I started thinking that maybe there was a way I could help raise the money for some of the kids at City Academy to have Kindles to use.   


How Can You Help?
I started by selling some of our old books (that weren't good for City Academy's library) to a book resale shop and I'm doing carwashes and a lemonade stand too.  We talked to our friends the Perrineaus and asked what they thought about the project. They liked it and are buying a Kindle for the school!   We thought that if we could get other people who love the written and spoken word to donate $200 each, it will be enough to buy a Kindle in their name and one book per Kindle to start.  Actually, any amount would be great! I thought I could try to have the back of each Kindle engraved with the City Academy logo and the name or a quote from the person donating it.  That way, the kids will have even more inspiration!

Where to send donations?

If you want to donate a check to The Kindle Project to cover all or part of the cost of a Kindle for the City Academy kids,  please send it to Ginger Imster, The Kindle Fund, City Academy, 4175 N Kingshighway, St. Louis, Missouri 63115. It's a 501c3 school, so donations are tax deductible too.    Another way is to send a gift card from Amazon.com that the school can use for Kindles and Kindle Books!