NR-S among few select schools to receive PBS Rural Family Engagement Grant

NR-S early elementary students took home a little extra homework lately, but it’s all in good fun.

Through a Rural Family Engagement Grant in collaboration with Prairie Public, NR-S early elementary students received new family-based learning resources focusing on the groundbreaking PBS Kids series “Molly of Denali.”

“Molly of Denali” is the first nationally distributed PBS children’s series to feature a Native American lead character. Molly Mabray is a feisty and resourceful 10-year-old Alaskan Native who takes viewers along with her on adventures. Molly helps her Mom and Dad run the Denali Trading Post – a general store, bunkhouse, and transport hub – where she assists tourists, trekkers and scientists. In every episode, Molly navigates her world and solves problems with the help of books, online resources, field guides, historical documents, maps, tables, posters, photos, Indigenous knowledge from elders, her very own vlog and more.

Much like the show, each resource kit offers fun learning activities for children and adults to enjoy together. The kits range from indoor and outdoor exploration activities, games, mazes and puzzles, writing, drawing and storytelling prompts, and map making.

Prairie Public was one of five public television stations nationwide selected to help develop these resources and local engagement strategies. Prairie Public chose New Rockford-Sheyenne School to assist with this initiative from a statewide pool of applicants. The team from NR-S who wrote the grant include Tasha Skogen, Jessie Schafer, Lori Demester, Whitney Burkhardsmeier, Alaina Yri and Lexi Ystaas.

Prairie Public Broadcasting, headquartered in Fargo, is a non-profit member station of PBS and NPR that provides public television services throughout North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota, southern Manitoba and parts of Montana and South Dakota; public radio service to North Dakota; and educational and technological services to communities and individuals across its coverage area.

The grant award covers a celebration at the end of the program. The wrap-up event will be at the gym with prizes and activities on Friday, March 13 from 5-8 p.m. Members from WGBH Boston will be traveling here for the event. WGBH is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the web, including Frontline, American Experience, NOVA, Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Pinkalicious & Peterrific and more than a dozen other prime-time and lifestyle series.