Vegas PBS partnered with the CCSD Indian Education Opportunities Program to host virtual Molly of Denali Family and Community Learning workshops every Saturday in March 2021, for an average of 10 families each session. Hosted by Ready To Learn Project Facilitator, Mayte Heredia, the Molly of Denali Family & Community Learning (FCL) experience is a series of four workshops that engage families in active, hands-on learning with the PBS KIDS program Molly of Denali. These workshops are designed for families with kids ages 4-8. As a multi-generational learning experience, all members of a family are welcome, including grandparents and younger or older siblings. The workshops use creative play and exploration to introduce kids and grown-ups to digital and tangible tools that can be used to develop knowledge, practices and perspectives.
The learning focus for this workshop series is about literacy and informational text—text whose main purpose is to convey information. During the workshops, families created a biosketch, or short biographical text, of a family member or historical figure. Families also investigated an animal that lives around them and then used the information collected to create a museum placard and sculpture of their animal. To support the experience, all families were mailed nine new informational texts, all supplies for the activities, a Molly of Denali Museum Planner, and a Molly of Denali Family Games set. Check out our digital museum of family projects.
After the workshops, one parent commented, “I wanted to thank you so for everything. Ezekiel had so much fun and so did his siblings. They would see what he did and would also do the activities after we were done with the Zoom [meeting], so they all enjoyed it! Thank you once again and I hope we get to do it again!”
This Molly of Denali Family and Community Learning program was supported by a grant from the NV Energy Foundation.
Molly of Denali Digital Museum: Indian Education Opportunities Program
