Little kids, longer hours

Holly Hamasaki’s kindergarteners are in it for the long haul — beginning class at the same time as every other student at Sun View Elementary School. In the afternoon, they will leave at the same time as well, completing nearly seven hours of schooling, where most kindergarten classes only meet for four hours.

These students are participating in a pilot program, testing the benefits and drawbacks of fully immersing first-year students in a full day of school.

“At the beginning of the year, I was waiting to hear ‘I’m tired,’ but no,” Hamasaki said. A few parents voiced concerns about the full-day class, but there are no complaints now, she said.

So far, the results of the extended school time has impressed almost everyone involved.

“It gives you more time to squeeze in more things,” volunteer Bob Roof said. Known by the kids as Grandpa Bob, Roof — who has been volunteering with kindergarten classes for five years — said he felt the lessons were too rushed in previous years.

“The young kids are so willing to learn,” Roof said, adding they didn’t have enough class time.

Hamasaki has plenty of help, with two grandparent volunteers, one teacher’s aide and a student teacher.

During the first lesson of the morning focusing on literacy skills, students rotated between four learning centers set up on tables, where they wrote stories, drew pictures, identified words such as “and,” “is” and “the,” and read books that connect words with pictures.

“I like the brown frog book,” 5-year-old Brandon Holiman said.

“I want my mom to capture a frog for me so I can have it as a pet.”

A number of the lessons dealt with word association, viewing a picture and finding the noun in a sentence for the picture.

Other times, students drew a picture and wrote the story behind the idea for the image.

The kids have benefited so much, plus they have never known any other type of kindergarten, Hamasaki said.

Most Sun View kindergarteners never attended preschool, so they’re playing catch-up from the beginning, John Drake, the school’s principal said.

Considering that the school is in one of the poorer neighborhoods in Huntington, the program is needed at this school more than others in the city, he said.

“We had the funding, which led us to consider extending the class day,” Drake said.

“We all had concerns about the kids learning to adjust. We needed a balanced program — academically and socially.

“The need, based on our research, is definitely here at Sun View,” Drake said. According to Hamasaki, the most dramatic improvements have been in the students’ reading comprehension. The kids already are reading books, which classes in years past did not do until after the winter holiday break, she said.