By Erin Wood
If you have K-5 kids, you won’t want to miss the six-week summer learning program, “Rise and Shine,” now airing on Arkansas PBS in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Education. Featuring lessons led by Arkansas teachers to reinforce learning in key subjects including literacy, math, science, and social studies, the program began July 6, airing weekdays from 8 to 11:30 a.m. through mid-August.
“Boosting literacy is one of our key objectives,” states Elizabeth Rollans, manager of curriculum for AR PBS. “We have really focused on including original programming aligned with literacy targets, including more than 30 video lessons, 12 original songs, and even segments featuring books, many of them by local authors.” Books will be read by “Arkansas’s best friend” Craig O’Neill and animated by PBS.
More than ninety hours of high-quality programming are aimed at connecting teachers and students and closing the gap for students with no internet access outside of school. Arkansas Teachers of The Year will be leading these engaging lessons, and students will enjoy field trip segments from the Scott Family Amazeum, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the Little Rock Zoo, Museum of Discovery, Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks, Museum of Native American History, Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), Mid-America Science Museum, and many more.
In addition to broadcasts, “Rise and Shine” will be available on-demand through the Engage Arkansas PBS app and on the Arkansas PBS website. Printed “Power Packets” that extend each week’s learning are also available. Learn more at myarpbs.org/riseandshine!
A Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs Et Ali Press (www.etaliapress.com). Wood is author of Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives (April 2019) and editor of and a contributor to Scars: An Anthology (2015).
