Budget & School Closure Info
/WSD-horizontal-logo-small-RGB.png?mask=1){kind=logo}
Author and artist Martha Flores reads a story with families during a Prime Time Family Readying session at Mission View Elementry
The Wenatchee School District's After School Program (ASP) has announced the launch of the Prime Time Family Reading Program, aimed at promoting literacy, encouraging family reading, and fostering a love for learning in children. The program has already kicked off with a great start in the first six weeks of sessions held for Lincoln and Mission View elementary students and has received positive feedback from participating families.
The program is designed to create a foundation for a lifelong love of reading by conducting six 90-minute weekly sessions held in the evenings. During these sessions, between 15 and 25 families share a meal, read stories with a storyteller and discussion leader, and then talk about big ideas and how they connect to weekly themes like compassion, truth, justice, and empathy.
“Our Prime Time team considered the program a success, with 19 families participating and a total of 75 family members,” says Maura Danforth, Project Director for Wenatchee’s 21st CCLC After School Programs. When asked how the program has changed their child’s attitude toward reading parents reported that their children are more motivated and want to continue reading with their families at home.
The upcoming 6-week session, starting in January, will target ASP families from Columbia, Lewis & Clark, and Newbery elemntaries. The program aims to make reading fun and engaging for everyone involved and build a foundation for lifelong reading skills. The program also includes a preschool component for younger siblings.
The Wenatchee School District's Big Six student outcome #3 is Reading on Grade level by 3rd grade and beyond, and Prime Time Family Reading goes directly to support that effort. By providing a unique learning environment for children and their families, the program aims to make reading fun and engaging for everyone involved.
Prime Time Family Reading is a collaborative effort between the ASP and the NCW Libraries. The NCW Libraries have formed a team of community supporters for this program, which consists of Claudia Bovee as Storyteller and Martha Flores as Scholar. Both Claudia and Martha have specific roles and responsibilities to ensure the program's success. Claudia is the Latinx Services Manager at NCW Libraries, while Martha is a well-known local artist and author.
A grant from Humanities Washington funds the Prime Time Family Reading program, which has served over 3,200 families statewide in over 80 communities since the program was launched in Washington State in 2014.
For more information on the Prime Time Family Reading Program and the Wenatchee School District’s After School Program, contact Maura Danforth, Project Director, Wenatchee’s 21st CCLC After-School Programs at (509) 663-7117 or danforth.m@wenatcheeschools.org