Representatives in Georgia celebrated Pre-K Week in Public schools throughout the week of Oct. 7.
Georgia Pre-K Week celebrates the state’s voluntary program that is available for free to all four-year-olds regardless of parental income. The week encourages leaders to advocate for early childhood education. Funded through the Georgia Lottery, the program served roughly 71,526 children statewide during the 2023 – 2024 school year.
To commemorate the week, public figures and state representatives read to several Pre-K students in their local communities. In Hall County, former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal visited Sandra Dunagan Deal Elementary School on Oct. 8.
Miriam Estrada, a student at the University of North Georgia’s College of Education and an intern at the elementary school, explained the value early literacy adds to the schooling of students preparing to attend kindergarten.
“It’s important to encourage literacy in young children for a long love of reading and writing,” Estrada said. “As well as growing their communication skills and building relationships, helping them in the future as well with academic, work and their social and emotional skills.”
The week-long initiative was launched in 2009 by the Voices of Georgia’s Children and the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. The week aims to allow legislators to see the impacts the programs have first-hand, according to a release from VGC’s website. The celebration was born after legislators considered cutting the program.
Each year, when representatives visit area schools, one book is chosen to be read to classes. The 2024 Pre-K Week book was “A Magnificent Field Trip to the Governor’s Mansion,” By Malcolm Mitchell.
SDDES Principal and Former Professor at the UNG College of Education Keri Smith shared that her teachers plan to carry on the legacy of the school’s namesake, who advocated for literacy throughout her life.
“At Sandra Dunagan Deal Elementary, we always want to promote literacy [in] Pre-K through Fifth grade [students],” Smith said. “We want life-long learners and life-long readers that also have the joy and passion for reading and learning. With Pre-K week, I’m just excited that we can serve kids in this capacity and we know that kids that have preschool and early literacy are more successful when they go to kindergarten.”
Estrada highlighted how UNG’s Education program has helped her develop her teaching strategies as she prepares to enter the classroom.
“I have gotten the opportunity to [get] experience in a class setting [and] view different ways to teach the students how planning a lesson may go. I’ve also learned class management strategies. Many other stuff I’ve learned was daily struggles we may run into and how to go about [addressing them], learned how everyone is unique and there is different ways to teach and understand our students. Also, [I’ve learned] how to help our students feel safe with us and to know they have someone they can trust,” -Miriam Estrada, sophomore education major.
Estrada also shared the ways in which adults can promote a love of reading in younger children.
“Some ways we can encourage literacy in younger children is having conversations with them, reading aloud, learning the ABC’s as well as the letter sounds, learning sight words, demonstrating how we can sound out words, labeling any picture they draw, introducing new words, rhyming words, sending books so they can read at home,” she said. “I’ve also learned that students enjoy reading when we make it fun and also look excited to read a book. They start to show excitement when it’s literacy time.”
Georgia Pre-K week will end on Oct. 11.
