Head Start in Bemidji Hosts Parking Lot Graduation

Graduations aren’t just for high school and college students. This year’s preschooler graduation ceremonies also had to get creative due to social distancing.

Head Start is an early childhood program in Bemidji. It is organized by BI-CAP, a non-profit community action program that assists low-income and disadvantaged people and families in Cass and Beltrami Counties.

It is a school readiness program that serves children from infancy all the way up until they are ready to join public school. They moved to distance learning over two months ago. This was a big adjustment for teachers who had to move their lessons online for their young students.

When it came to the end of the year, teachers wanted a way to celebrate their students as well as say goodbye to them for the season. They opted for a parking lot graduation.

Parents drove into the lot with their students and were able to say goodbye for the season from their cars. They drove up to an individual table corresponding to their student’s class where they could pick up school pictures from the year, all of their school work, a bin of summer activities, and anything they may have left in the lost in found (it is a preschool after all).

The activity bins were full of arts and crafts and instructions for how to use them, so that the children have something to keep them busy until school starts again in August.