Color them kindergartners

Jeff Benson

Kindergarten is where the questions begin: Does he want to be my

friend? Does this taste good? How come she gets all the attention?

And why don’t I get to play?

Kindergarten teachers, though, provide some of their first lessons

in lifelong virtue. Sonora Elementary School’s Cheryl Hoyt has been

teaching children for 20 years and stresses the importance of

sharing, getting along and following instructions.

Hoyt’s 20 kindergartners broke out their red, yellow and green

crayons to draw and color traffic signals Monday, but it wasn’t so

much the art lesson itself as much as it was the instruction that

accompanied it. It’s two weeks into the school year, and many of the

children who hadn’t attended preschool have a tough time being told

what to do, she said.

“They’re my little debutantes,” she said. “This is their

introduction to society. They’re used to taking naps or getting to

play whenever they want to. But they’ll go from 4- and 5-year-olds

who cry to being able to read and write and add and subtract by the

end of kindergarten.”

Hoyt turned a simple exercise like drawing and coloring a stop

light into the kids’ first school lessons in drawing lines,

distinguishing shapes and exploring colors.

“We’re going to make a rectangle,” Hoyt said. “How many sides does

a rectangle have? And how many corners? And who remembers what circle

color goes on top?”

The kids were now somewhat used to asking the questions. But when

they had rapid-fire questions shot back at them, they became quiet

and thoughtful. But equally important was that the kids sat quietly

with their hands folded, raised their hands to speak, stood in

straight lines and shared crayons.

“It’s about building friends and learning how to share,” Hoyt

said. “Little things trigger that, like ringing a bell. I want them

to be team players.”