Ready for School

Iowa PBS’s Ready for School initiative highlights our commitment to early childhood education. Educational specialists work with educators, parents, childcare providers and local partners in selected Iowa communities to implement STEM and literacy-based activities for children 2 through 5 years old.

Ready for School focuses on giving all children equal opportunity to succeed. Iowa PBS provides access to high-quality educational media resources including online games, instructional materials and educational activities that help children increase their school readiness and success. The multimedia content and related activities are based upon the work of educational children’s programming from PBS, such as The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, Odd Squad, Molly of Denali, Peg + Cat, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Super WHY!.

The initiative was validated by scientifically based research funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Ready for School has been deployed in more than 165 Iowa communities.

Ready for School Toolkit

With this engaging collection, students can watch short videos and play online games that incorporate problem solving!

Website
STEM

Young learners can practice letters and early geometry skills with Alphabet Patterns from our Ready for School toolkit.

Document
Language Arts

An educator's guide to social, emotional and character development curriculum.

Document
Social Emotional

Get ready for the start of school with some of our favorite back-to-school resources!

Website
STEM

Practice early geometry, counting and pattern recognition.

Document
STEM

Practice counting skills.

Document
STEM

Help young children learn to manage emotions with Daniel Tiger’s Life Lessons from our Ready for School toolkit.

Multimedia
Social Emotional

Practice counting and math skills.

Document
STEM

Inspire the love of learning with these great resources from PNC Grow Up Great!

Website
Social Emotional

Explore these literacy-based activities with your young learner inspired by your child's favorite PBS KIDS programs!

Document
Language Arts

Help young children practice their social emotional skills with this fun memory game.

Document
Social Emotional

Solve odd cases and create useful gadgets.

Document
STEM

Five-day thematic, multimedia activity math activity plans designed for afterschool programs.

Website
STEM

Come play and learn in the PBS KIDS Lab, the lab where every new technology is an opportunity for learning!

Website
Social Emotional

Use this PEEP curriculum to help preschools explore different colors and investigate different shades of the same color.

Website
STEM

Use this PEEP curriculum to help preschools explore how plants grow.

Website
STEM

Use this PEEP curriculum to help preschools explore the way things roll and slide down ramps and hills.

Website
STEM

Use this PEEP curriculum to help preschools explore how a shadow’s shape, size, position, and appearance can change.

Website
STEM

Use this PEEP curriculum to help preschools explore and identify the sounds around them.

Website
STEM

Use this PEEP curriculum to help preschools explore how containers and tools make water move and flow in different ways.

Website
STEM

Engage your preschoolers in fun learning experiences in math and problem-solving with these activities from Peg + Cat.

Website
STEM

Use these flexible resources to support learning anywhere: videos, interactive lessons, printable activities and more.

Website
Language Arts

Ready Jet Go! helps your PreK-3 students to develop a love of learning for all things related to the planet Earth.

Website
STEM

Learn ways to advance early learning skills for children ages 2-8 with this Ready to Learn library of resources.

Website
Social Emotional

Everything you need to help children grow smarter, stronger and kinder!

Website
Social Studies

Explore these social emotional activities with your young learner inspired by your child's favorite PBS KIDS programs!

Document
Social Emotional

Packed full of fun puzzles to solve, this book has mazes to navigate, things to find, artwork to color and differences to spot.

Document
STEM

Play this game using the tile letters.

Document
Language Arts

Use these title letters to play our word game.

Document
Language Arts

Learn to creative ways to think, solve problems and complete tasks in more organized ways with Work It Out Wombats!

Website
Social Emotional

Help your young learner practice letters and numbers with the writing mat from our Ready for School toolkit.

Document
Language Arts