By Jacky Gerzema
They make chirping sounds with their wings, he explains in a serious tone while hopping up and down, and said that when they were placed into a habitat by themselves, they were silent because they were lonely.
Maniace is one of 373 kindergartners now attending a full day of kindergarten in the Baldwin School District. This is the district's first year of full-day kindergarten, which was instituted after educators called for a fuller and richer education for first-year students and smaller classes for more personalized instruction.
Teachers and administrators are declaring the experiment a full-blown success, saying students have more opportunity to work independently during a full day.
"Research says that they need to be independent," Milburn School Principal Debbie Martin said. "There is a lot of hands-on discovery through learning centers."
Steele kindergarten teacher Nancy Dougherty said she sees a big difference with a full day to teach.
"They have more time to learn things, they can learn more in-depth and they can learn more. They've really risen to the challenge, they're so eager to learn," said Dougherty.
Parents happy overall
Despite some initial misgivings, most parents are enthusiastic about their children's full day of classes as well.
Vernette Miller said her son Jacob is doing well in his class at Lenox.
"It's a terrific idea, I don't know why they didn't do it sooner," said Miller. "I'm a class mom and a school monitor, so I see them in class sometimes and every day I see them coming into lunch. They're definitely growing, they're more independent...so far it's been great."
Karen John said she was apprehensive at first about the possibility of a full day of kindergarten for her daughter Jada.
"I felt a motherly instinct at first of not wanting to let go of her that much," she said. "But it seems to be a very good program.
John has already experienced the half-day kindergarten format and said the full day is much more advanced.
"They're learning to add and spell....They have more time to focus on learning more things."
Though many parents are singing the praises of full-day K now, when the idea was floated a year ago, there was some controversy. At an open forum in January, 2001, Ronald Oriani, whose daughter Colleen attends kindergarten at Lenox School, said he and his wife were among the many parents who supported reduced class size in lieu of full-day kindergarten.
Both full-day K and reduced class sizes won approval from the Board of Education last year, though class sizes weren't reduced as drastically as many parents had hoped.
A class-size reduction committee had recommended a three-year plan last year that would eventually limit class sizes to 20 students in grades K-2, 23 students in grade 4, and 25 students in grade 5.
Class sizes are now limited to 22 students in grades K-2 and 25 students in grades 3-5 as a result of the district's reduced class size plan.
Superintendent Dr. Kathy Weiss said she does not plan to further reduce class sizes in the near future.
"I don't have any recommendation in my budget to reduce class size, because we don't have any space for it," she said. "That's another issue we're dealing with."
Full-day K was a high priority last year, because the state issued Baldwin a one-time grant of $445,320 to start the program. State aid for full-day K was given in addition to state aid for class-size reduction.
Oriani suggested that some parents may have supported the full-day schedule so they themselves could go back to work while their children were in school.
"Kindergarten isn't for babysitting," he said. "Parents should choose a full day for the right reasons, not so it can benefit them."
Despite his misgivings, Oriani said his daughter is doing well at Lenox School in her full-day kindergarten class, and that the new kindergarten teacher, Kelly Iannone, has been great with the children.
Plenty of time for fun
Some parents also worried that a full day would mean all work and no play for kids.
Students not only get down time for snacks and recess, their lessons are fun as well, Martin said.
"They [students] think they're playing while they're learning," Martin said. "Every activity is meant to be fun. Students will see a lesson as a game, but the game has an objective. They always learn something from it."
Students in Jessica Hinkaty's class at Milburn alternate between work stations where they gather in small groups and learn different math-related lessons through several activities. In Center One, students are given a "measurement scavenger hunt" lesson where they measure items in the classroom such as windows, chairs, and the chalkboard.
In another learning station called "Frosty," students are given a worksheet with pictures of Frosty the snowman wearing buttons of different numbers. They roll a die and match the number rolled with the number of buttons on the snowman. This lesson teaches them to both count and write numbers.
"When we get older, we can count more," five-year-old Maniace explained matter-of-factly as he added numbers at another work center.
One major teaching objective is to integrate lessons and almost every lesson is interdisciplinary, said Milburn kindergarten teacher Elizabeth Brush. In one exercise, students learn about the different food groups, while at the same time drawing their favorite foods and writing the names of them on a piece of paper. This integrates art, English, language arts and science, she said.
Students also keep a journal where they write poems with the "magic words" they have learned to read by sight and draw pictures.
Hinkaty uses "magic words" in her class to teach words that kindergartners should know by the end of their first year. Magic words are those words the students should be able to read by sight, without sounding out the word itself. Five-year-old Kevin Cheong shyly ticked off the magic words.
" The..you...I...a...," Cheong trailed off while trying to remember additional words by stealing glances at the "Magic Words" poster on the chalkboard for clues. "See...said...has...can...."
Students also learn reading and writing by focusing on different letters during the week. During the beginning of February, students had "G" week at Milburn, which coincided with Groundhog Day.
"They weren't using some of these words in February," Martin said of last year's kindergartners.
After a six-and-a-half-hour day filled with activities, Hinkaty's students belted out a song about vowels at the top of their lungs to squeeze in one last lesson before going home. Hopping up and down with beaming smiles and enthusiastic waves to their teacher and principal, they charged out of the classroom to go home and tell their parents that they learned the basics of measurement that day.
"They love everything about kindergarten," Brush said. "They don't want to go home at the end of the day."
