Messages of the Built Environment was developed in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. It supports preschool math and reading readiness.
Designed as a holistic preschool center-based program with elements for professional development, classroom enrichment, home-based activities, and large group family activities, Messages has become the wellpsring for programs that serve home-based, parents and children together, daycare, out-of-school time, and adult education programs.
- Messages empowers parents to recognize teaching opportunities and stimulate exploration and conversation in their immediate surroundings. Counting, sorting, naming, drawing and interpreting lines, shapes and other visual elements of everyday objects and environments helps children develop ownership of abstract concepts.
- Parents and teachers report that looking for lines, shapes and patterns sharpens children’s math skills and strengthens children’s ability to recognize and write letters and numbers. “What if” activities and story-telling stimulate vocabulary, creativity, and problem solving.
- Large group family activities from this series support after-school, evening, and weekend programming for families.
Adaptations of Messages includes:
Parenting for Literacy, a parent-child together program.
TAP: Teaching Advantage for Parents, classroom enrichment for Adult Basic Education.
Building Blocks, program for parents of infants and toddlers (in development).