The City of Santa Monica’s Annual Arts & Literacy Festival at Virginia Avenue Park will showcase an afternoon of activities, live performances, an active zone, family friendly activities hosted by community organizations, and the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Aquarium on Wheels around the theme “Under the Sea.”
The festival promotes the Santa Monica Cradle to Career Building Blocks for Kindergarten Campaign, which helps parents, educators, early childcare providers, and other community partners work together to make sure all Santa Monica children start kindergarten ready to learn, inside and outside the classroom. The campaign launched in 2015 in response to findings from the Youth Wellbeing Report Card that showed only 65% of Santa Monica public school children are on track when they begin kindergarten.
Twenty-five different Santa Monica agencies will offer participatory games and activities promoting Santa Monica’s Cradle to Career Kindergarten Readiness Campaign as well as an Active Zone where Santa Monica Police Department Officers and Venice Family Clinic will lead games. The Cradle to Career Building Blocks for Kindergarten Campaign will feature Vroom to spread opportunities for brain building moments with your child. Children will fill out an Explorer Card to receive a free book from the Santa Monica Public Library.
Arts & Literacy Festival activities include:
10:00 AM Welcome
10:15 AM Peanut (Children’s Singer)
10:50 AM Child Development Services, Student Performance
11:15 AM Paradise Hawaiian Dancers
11:45 AM Cooking Demonstration in Farmers Market Area
12:00 PM Caribbean Drum Circle by Joseph Peck
12:15 PM Book Reading in the Coral Reef Reading Area: Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
1:15 PM Tony Daniels Magic
2:00 PM Event Conclusion
For information about Virginia Avenue Park, visit smgov.net/vapark. Visit the Facebook event page for more information.
For more information about the Santa Monica Cradle to Career Building Blocks to Kindergarten campaign, visit santamonicacradletocareer.org/kindergarten
