Anoka/Washington County Head Start, based in Coon Rapids, MN, provides education, nutrition, mental health, school readiness and parent engagement services to children (aged 3-5) and families from income-eligible households. With nearly 115 dedicated staff, this Head Start program is equipped to foster a Pre-K learning environment for hundreds of enrolled children and families to learn, grow and thrive!
As Kristi Edmonds, Child Development Services Coordinator with Anoka/Washington County Head Start trains and provides mentoring services to staff, she focuses on the overall experience of the classroom - guiding and supporting everyday needs for curriculum implementation. To help with this effort, the decision was made in June of 2017 to invest in the VariQuest Cutout Maker 1800, using State and Federal Grant Funding.
This revolutionary, digital die-cut system, created specifically for schools, brings lessons to life with more than 5,000 shapes, 229 bulletin board collections and 18 font styles - with additional content being added often. To cultivate an interactive learning environment for their eager learners and bring more meaning to their lessons, the Cutout Maker gets a regular workout by all program departments.
“There are SO MANY OPTIONS for cutout shapes for the program to use. It is used by someone each day, with lots of use at the beginning of the year and when the study topic changes.”
- Ms. Edmonds
Some fun recent examples:
- fdA family event hosted by the Early Head Start Child Care team used The Very Hungry Caterpillar as its theme, providing a copy of the story, along with cutout manipulatives to go with it for future re-telling of the story at home.
- Another take-home activity they use is a “Healthy Food Choices” wreath where children and parents make proper nutrition fun!
Together with their students, the Anoka/Washington County Head Start works to educate and move mountains, and with the help of the Cutout Maker, they're creating a happy and successful learning environment!
To see more examples of how the Anoka/Washington County Head Start is using their Cutout Maker 1800, check out their full story
here.
For more information on how the VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Tools could benefit your Pre-K learning program, request a personalized meeting with one of our expert Education Consultants today!