DECATUR - Viewing the worksheet before her as a puzzle, 5-year-old Kayli Bunch quickly saw she didn't have all the pieces.

"I only got one circle," she complained as she went about placing colorful shapes in the correct col ;umns.

Rachael Wiley assured her that was OK because the point of the exercise was to practice matching shapes and touch on the concepts of "least" and "most" by deciding which column had which.

Wiley, an education student at Millikin University, is visiting each of 16 prekindergarten classrooms at Pershing Early Learning Center once a week this summer, using fine arts to strengthen the children's math and language skills. The lessons, made possible by a $3,600 grant from the Decatur Education Foundation, are but one of many ways the community is doing more to prepare children for kindergarten.

"We want their first experience to be positive so school is a place they want to be," said Aissa Norris, principal at the school.

Norris said the early learning center is serving 60 additional pre ;kin ;dergarteners this year, from January through July 11, thanks to a $300,000 state grant under PreK for All.

The Decatur School District and the Decatur Area Education Coalition, meanwhile, already have screened more than 700 children starting kindergarten this year, compared to 600 before the start of school last year and 500 the year before. Such screening identifies children who need help preparing for school.

York Powers, kindergarten readiness coordinator for the coalition, said this year's increase was achieved primarily by conducting screenings in March and April at preschools and day care centers throughout the city. "It was more convenient for parents who can't take time off work," he said.

Another effort aimed at parents who are not available during the day is a kindergarten readiness presentation next week at the Decatur Public Library.

Barb Beck, executive director of the education coalition, said Powers will tell parents how to get their children ready for school, and Katie Gross, head of the library's children's division, will read children a story, talk about the library's summer reading program and invite parents to get their child a library card. "We'll display some books about starting kindergarten, learning the alphabet and things like that," Gross said. "I hope parents see how much fun it is to use the library and read aloud to their children."

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.