The Kindergarten Readiness Experience is showing local kids what school feels, looks, and sounds like

Five kindergartners to-be sat in front of their own tiny mirrors on Thursday morning, twisting and studying their faces carefully.

While they were told not to forget about their ears and hair, they used pencils and markers to render their likenesses onto paper. They were drawing self-portraits and learning to identify their facial features, while their mothers, fathers, or aunties sat next to them, offering words of encouragement.

After the drawing time was up, the class facilitators went around the room and asked each child to show off the work. Kyan Ian Stone-Black, 5, held his drawing high above his head. It featured a pink necktie he’d drawn on himself. Lila Vaught, 3, drew headphones over her ears because she loves listening to the Encanto movie soundtrack. And Zaeem Johnson, 5, was a little shyer, presenting his small, mostly orange portrait to the rest of the class. But he still had fun making it.

“I look like an onion,” he told his father with a smile.

This group of young children was participating in the Kindergarten Readiness Experience, a free program from the Please Touch Museum that prepares kids for what kindergarten will “feel like, look like and sound like.” There are still a couple of sessions open through the end of August, and families can apply on the KRE website at www.pleasetouchmuseum.org/kre.

KRE participants come to the museum for four 90-minute sessions over the course of two weeks, to play, read books, practice music, and do anything else the average kindergartner might do. Each session has a different focus, such as reflecting on growth and encouraging independence. Meanwhile, the caregivers aren’t just sitting and watching; they take part in the activities, write reflections on their child’s successes and challenges, and discuss best child-rearing practices with each other.

“There’s a lot of research to suggest that if a child is ready for kindergarten, they’re going to do better in the future academically and socially [and] emotionally,” said Alyssa Liles-Amponsah, the senior director of community programs and inclusion at the Please Touch Museum. “It’s so important to intervene as early as possible with children and make sure they have all the skills they need to be successful in kindergarten so it sets their trajectory on a positive pathway.”

Liles-Amponsah said that the KRE is the product of several years worth of research and interviews with community members and local stakeholders about how the Please Touch Museum could help boost early learning in Philadelphia. The program began in 2021 as a pilot, especially well-timed after some educators and caretakers told the Please Touch team that they noticed a deficit in children’s social and emotional skills since the COVID pandemic took them out of school and day care.

“We know they’ve missed out on a lot of social interaction ... that they would have had, had the pandemic not happened. Maybe they would have been in day care or another preschool setting,” she said.

» READ MORE: Thousands of kindergartners didn’t show up for school last year. Here’s what that means for the school year to come.

There’s an emphasis on equity here, too. While the program is open to children across Philadelphia, KRE is heavily prioritizing children from the neighborhoods around the Please Touch Museum — Parkside, Mantua, and Belmont. “Some of us who don’t get that preparedness early on are at a disadvantage once we start school. And it happens disproportionately, we know, in lower socioeconomic communities,” Liles-Amponsah said.

“We really wanted to focus on our neighbors. We knew that we have a responsibility as [an] organization planted in West Philadelphia.”

Marguerite Sutton, 34, and her son, Ryan Reed Jr., 5, are some of those West Philly neighbors. “I know he’s academically ready, but I also want [him] to see the social aspect [of kindergarten and] getting prepared for that, as well,” Sutton said.

And even though Sutton was a high school teacher for nearly a decade, she’s picked up parenting tips from the KRE, too. For example, the facilitators encouraged the caregivers in the class to check in with their children using a “rose, bud, thorn” prompt — the child answers with one good thing they’re feeling, something they’re looking forward to, and one bad thing. Sutton was familiar with the concept, but had never thought to use it with her own child.

“I think that they have given us some tools to really engage with them. Not just preparing for kindergarten, but his day-to-day and what he sees throughout the day to really encourage that learning,” she said.

Sutton said that her son is excited to start kindergarten this fall, and every once in awhile he will simply announce to her, “I’m going to kindergarten.”

But with a significant transition point in his life ahead, Ryan is keeping his career options open. Right now, he’s considering paleontology when he grows up because he loves raptors and the Tyrannosaurus rex. Either that, or a monster truck driver.