Providence Kids – Grab Your Passports and Get Ready for Summer Learning!

The Annual Citywide Summer Learning Initiative Kicks Off This Week

PROVIDENCE, R.I. —  Providence Community Library (PCL) and Providence Public Library (PPL) are proud to partner once again on the city’s Passport to Summer Learning program. The innovative program, now in its eighth year, will take a hybrid approach to learning as Rhode Island emerges from the pandemic.  PCL, together with PPL, the Providence Public School Department and Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s Office, have collaborated with other community organizations around the city to provide free access to books, as well as to an engaging and creative mix of enrichment opportunities that are designed to keep students reading, learning and exploring from June 28  to August 20.

Here’s how to get started with summer reading:

• Go to the Providence Beanstack Summer Reading Challenge website (pvd.beanstack.org/reader365) to find grade-appropriate reading lists, record and track reading time and win prizes.  Students who complete the Summer Reading Challenge by reading 20 minutes a day for 40 days will be entered in the Grand Prize drawing. Library staff are available to help with registration in person or over the phone  if needed.

• Pick up themed activity bags from any of PCL’s nine neighborhood locations, or from PPL.  The STEAM-based (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) bags are available June 28 – Aug 20, with a new bag issued weekly.  The bags explore everything Rhody: Growing & Gardening, the Narragansett, Niantic & Wampanoag peoples, History & Government, Black History, Wildlife, Beaches & Bay, Food, and Legends & Mysteries. Also explore PCL’s catalog of new, exciting, hands-on and discovery-based Take, Explore and Discover (TED!) kits, made possible through a generous grant from the Nordson Foundation. They can be checked out and taken home, just like books!

• Use the Passport to Summer Learning to explore Providence via free virtual tours, activities, programs and exhibits. As the state reopens, it may be possible to visit sites also in person. Participating partners include Providence Parks, Providence Children’s Museum, Roger Williams Park Zoo, RISD Museum, Farm Fresh RI, Rhode Island State House, John Brown House Museum, the Museum of Work & Culture and the Museum of Natural History & Planetarium. Visit the Passport website and the PCL and PPL websites for details.

• Enjoy in-person, outdoor summer reading kick-off events at selected PCL locations and look out for outdoor library resources at PlayCorps and Eat, Play, Learn PVD summer meal sites.

  Designed and presented by PCL, PPL, Providence Public Schools, and Mayor Elorza, Passport to Summer Learning addresses summer learning loss and mitigates achievement gaps among children in grades K-5 with the least access to community assets and educational resources. It encourages families to get out in our community and spend time together by promoting and connecting them with engaging, free activities offered by collaborating partners and organizations.

  The statewide Rhode Island Summer Reading Program is supported by the RI Office of Library and Information Services, with funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, PCL, PPL, and generous library donors.  The Passport programming partners include the Rhode Island Secretary of State, the Rhode Island Historical Society, and Farm Fresh RI.