Early learning collaboratives in Tallahatchie County and throughout Mississippi this week are celebrating 10 years of pre-K education.
The Mississippi Legislature adopted The Early Learning Collaborative Act of 2013, establishing state-funded pre-K. Through the program, community-level partnerships have been formed between schools, Head Start centers and child care facilities offering the high-quality pre-K option.
Tallahatchie Early Learning Alliance, the local collaborative that serves 83 pre-K students at Charleston Elementary School, the Eva Covington Head Start Center near Charleston and the West Tallahatchie Head Start Center near Glendora, was founded in 2014. TELA’s pre-K program, serving local 3- and 4-year-olds on a space-available basis, is free to students.
As part of its “transformation celebration” TELA enlisted the aid of Charleston Magnolia Garden Club and Plantation Garden Club members, respectively, in erecting banners on the grounds of the county courthouses in Charleston and Sumner.
TELA children staked out colorful plastic butterflies at the base of the banners.
Butterflies were adopted as the symbol to represent the transformative work of pre-K.
Locally and throughout the state, pre-K students at early learning collaboratives have studied the life cycle of butterflies, engaged in butterfly-themed crafts and utilized kits to nurture caterpillars toward their transformation into butterflies right in the classroom.
To learn more about Early Learning Collaboratives, visit the Mississippi First website.
