THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607150035
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 83 lines
Imagine, for a moment, that you are 5.
And that a big yellow bus has just come whooshing up to your corner. Imagine letting go of your mother's or father's warm hand, lifting your knees up high to climb on board, and seeing just what you had feared all along.
Big kids.
Once surviving the bus ride, imagine the sound of your sandals slapping against the tile when you arrive at school, the heft of your new backpack bouncing against your thin shoulders, the smell of Lysol and milk cartons, the thumping inside your chest when you walk into a class full of people where you don't know a soul.
Imagine, if you can, that it's your very first day of kindergarten.
Kinda scary, don't you think?
Now imagine you had four weeks of practice - kindergarten in small doses - to get used to the idea.
That's the concept behind a program this summer in the Chesapeake Public Schools called the Pre-Kindergarten Express, which is in its sixth year. About 500 children, most of whom have not been in an organized preschool or day care setting, are going to school for 18 days in July, two hours a day, to learn the ropes.
Not so much their ABCs, or numbers or days of the week, but the very basics of life in a group: Raising your hand to speak. Getting in line. Scooting your chair back under your desk. Taking turns. Listening to directions. Making choices. Accepting choices others make for you.
Rules, incidentally, that will serve them well as grownups, too.
And, of course, there are the all-important rules of the bus.
The children in Donna Mishler's Pre-K Express class at Southeastern Elementary can recite those for you after just one week of instruction:
Ian Olson: ``Always sit down 'til it's your turn to get off.''
Christina Antiskay: ``Always keep your hands and head inside the windows.''
Orion Burke: ``We don't say loud stuff.''
Holly Dowdy: ``Never sit in the back when the big kids come on.''
Indeed.
Mishler reminds Holly that sitting in front is not so much a rule as a privilege.
Ah, yes, the privilege of being the littlest one on the bus.
In her 21 years of teaching elementary school, Mishler says a lot has changed.
In the beginning, kindergartners mostly came in at the same level. Now the differences are more striking. ``Some come in reading, others don't know how to hold a book right side up,'' she said.
The Pre-K Express - in which parents of children entering kindergarten in the fall can enroll their kids - is just one way of evening out the differences and making sure that children arrive knowing the basic rules of conduct.
Mishler has an additional goal as well: Making school a fun experience.
``OK, everybody stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance,'' she says at the beginning of a session earlier this week. ``What hand do we use?''
``Right hand,'' the children chorus.
She follows that with two hours of activities sure to please the most discriminating of 5-year-olds. Coloring and gluing. Reading books. Singing songs. Taking turns at centers with sand, blocks and puzzles. Cutting with scissors.
``Give yourselves a hand,'' Mishler says at the end of the session. The children clap. ``And a pat on the back.'' They stretch their arms behind their backs and pound away.
By the time September rolls around, Mishler wants the children to not only be ready, but excited about school.
Ian already is. ``I can't wait to go to kindergarten,'' he says jubilantly at the end of the class.
``I think I'm ready,'' chimes in Orion. ``I really do.''
One last word of advice for the kindergarten-bound: Some day, you'll be the big kids. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT photos\The
Virginian-Pilot
In her Pre-K Express class at Southeastern Elementary, Donna Mishler
teaches kids like Orion Burke about basic group situations.
After instructing her pre-kindergarten kids on group conduct, such
as taking turns or listening to directions, Mishler ends the day
with more entertaining activities, like reading a book.
KEYWORDS: KINDERGARTEN CHESAPEAKE by CNB