Across Franklin County, nearly 60% of children are not ready for kindergarten by the time they start school. This means these children are missing some combination of the language, literacy, math, physical, and social-emotional skills needed to be successful in kindergarten and beyond. 

Through a unique partnership with our friends at South Side Early Learning (SSEL), we have developed a program to use soccer as a platform to support physical, language, literacy, and social-emotional development. Over the past three months, F3’s Director of Education and SSEL’s Senior Director of Innovation and Research have been developing a robust program that gets young children excited about reading and soccer. This fall, we piloted a program that consisted of 6 sessions with three SSEL preschool classrooms and 65 preschoolers. Now we need your help to expand the program to include 12 full weeks of instruction with over 125 preschoolers! 

The F3 Soccer & Literacy for Littles has been developed with SSEL to promote a range of emergent literacy skills (print knowledge, vocabulary, phonological awareness, listening comprehension), while also improving children’s executive function and peer relationships. The program uses three commercially-available soccer-themed children's books: “Kick It Mo!,” “The Field,” and “Pelé.” During each session, coaches incorporate content-specific vocabulary words from the books while teaching children basic soccer skills. Coaches use a variety of techniques to engage children throughout the session, such as using colors, numbers, and specific words and phrases. 

For SSEL, the Soccer and Literacy for Littles program is a great way to provide a unique and engaging way to promote kindergarten readiness and align with early learning standards.

For F3, the Soccer and Literacy for Littles program is a great way to build community through soccer and support interest in other programs like its Tiny Tots soccer program.  

After the initial SSEL pilot, SSEL and F3 plan to manualize the full 10-week curriculum and provide the curriculum to other early childhood programs in Columbus.