THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 7, 1995 TAG: 9509060166
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Five-year-old Chacobi Eley wasn't having such a good day Tuesday.
The tears started when the Oakland Elementary School kindergartner tried to remove her apple-shaped nametag necklace over her head. It snagged on a braid and pulled her hair mercilessly.
And the tears continued because her shoes were too tight, because she wanted to go home and - well, just because.
``I don't know,'' Chacobi said between sniffles. ``School is not so bad. I want to go home and play.''
But her teacher, Conjo Whitley, knew exactly what the problem was: first-day-of-school syndrome.
``This has been a typical first day: a few tears shed, a lot of milk spilled and trays left on the table,'' Whitley said. ``It usually takes a couple of weeks for the children to adjust to the structure of a classroom.''
Luckily, the transition from summer to school wasn't as traumatic for most youngsters in Whitley's class. Most said starting school was fun.
``It was just perfect,'' said Robert Fly, whose 5-year-old twin brother, William, is in the neighboring kindergarten classroom. ``Everybody was perfect.''
Although Robert couldn't pinpoint his favorite activity of the day, his classmate, Shane Rose, 5, said the highlight of his day was being picked to put sunglasses on the class' Weatherbear. Students learn about the weather by dressing the cutout of a bear in the appropriate weather gear.
``I loved putting on his glasses,'' said Shane, who also tried to donate his blue tank top so Weatherbear would be more comfortable in the heat.
For several students, the best of the day occurred before they ever hit the classroom.
``Riding the bus was as much fun as riding in a taxi!'' Richard Lynch said.
On Tuesday, 829 youngsters started their academic careers in the kindergarten classrooms of Suffolk's elementary schools, said Bethanne Bradshaw, spokesman for the school system. This is up from 765 students who showed up for their first day of kindergarten in Suffolk last year, and the figure is likely to continue growing over the next few days.
In fact, Suffolk's entire student population is on an upward swing, Bradshaw said. The school system had 9,516 students for the first day of school this year, up from 8,803 at the same time last year.
``Usually, a few trickle in from long vacations or moving into the area,'' Bradshaw said. ``We expected this growth.''
She said the school system is trying to limit each kindergarten class to 20 students and added 15 mobile classrooms to schools across the division. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by ALLISON WILLIAMS
TOP: John Sammons, principal of Oakland Elementary School, visits a
kindergarten class to welcome them and talk about class protocol.
RIGHT: Sammons tries to comfort Chacobi Eley, who wasn't enthralled
with her first day of school. Chacobi was upset because her
nametag-necklace had snagged on her braid.
by CNB