Children who do not read proficiently by 3^rd grade are 4x more likely to leave school. Our Books & Buddies program supports early literacy by bringing an element of comfort and security for children as they begin to read.  The Books & Buddies kits contain learner or beginner level books paired with a stuffed animal relating to the story and are designed to be used in the classroom for reading time, engaging in a specific book as a whole class, or as an addendum to classroom curriculum. Students are able to take their Book & Buddy home at the end of the semester. 

Many of the students we serve do not have meaningful exposure to STEM or understand how it can be applicable to their everyday lives. We are pleased to bring FIRST^® LEGO^® League (FLL) to several Little Bit schools. FLL is an international competition for elementary and middle school students involving designing and programming LEGO Education robots to complete tasks. During the year, we assist FLL teams with building their Lego robots and then programming them to perform a series of missions. The year culminates in a competition organized by Little Bit and judged by FLL certified officials.

In concert with STEM Board, we bring STEM Lingo to middle and high school students in our partner schools. Designed by a former NASA rocket scientist, STEM Lingo is a step-by-step, self-paced coding kit students use to build functional prototypes. During the week-long program, students work through a series of modules that get incrementally more difficult. Part of the program also involves educating students about how they can take the principles they’ve learned out into the real world, as well as all of the careers connected to coding.