Transitional kindergarten, special programs provide early options

On a warm day in early March, students in Eliana Fiorini’s class at Adkison Elementary took a wiggle break – a two-minute stretch and move between 12-minute sessions studying the letter “j.”

One little boy with a reddening face got Fiorini’s attention. “Do you need some help with that zipper?” she said, tugging the front zip of his hoodie when he nodded.

Fiorini teaches a prekindergarten year for children who turn 5 after Sept. 1, the kindergarten cutoff date, and before Dec. 2, the old cutoff date. Transitional kindergarten offers a bridge between home and school for so-called young 5s.

Her class “pair-shares” with partners, like all Ceres grade-schoolers do. They line up for recess and cafeteria lunch. They wait to be called on by Fiorini, a credentialed teacher.

But where transitional kindergarten takes a week to study the letter “j,” regular kindergarten spends maybe a day. Kindergartners need to be reading words by March. Kindergarten lays out rules with reminders; transitional kindergarten has social skills built into its curriculum.

“It gives them that extra year of support,” explained Adkison Principal Nicole Chapman. “But they use all the instructional strategies that a regular kindergarten does.”

The first weeks of transitional kindergarten look very different from kindergarten classrooms, Fiorini said. “They’re 4. They’re crying. They have a lot of outbursts,” she said, “Socially, they’re just not ready (for kindergarten), not ready emotionally.”

The preliminary year was designed to let the littlest kids on the playground take kindergarten in stride the next year. For children learning English, an extra year of language provides a steppingstone.

“The first year, there were a lot of people who were very hesitant to put their children in,” Fiorini said, but faith and enrollment have grown steadily. “It lets these kids go into kindergarten with the letters and numbers really solid,” she said.

Parents can also keep their young 5s home another year, or send them to preschool. For those with youngsters turning 5 by Sept. 1, there are more choices.

Dual-language schools offer a way for children to keep their home language, or learn another one. Bret Harte Elementary in Modesto, Osborn Two Way Immersion Academy in Turlock and the Riverbank Language Academy all create academically bilingual students in Spanish and English. All Livingston schools offer dual language learning.

Riverbank Unified will offer a third language, Mandarin Chinese, starting this fall. The Riverbank Academy of Multilingual Education will have a Spanish-English immersion program, with an introduction to the Chinese language and culture. Denair Unified is consolidating its charter and elementary schools into the Denair Elementary Charter Academy, offering a dual immersion option in kindergarten starting this fall.

Charter schools are schools of choice, open to students living anywhere in the county or adjacent counties. Aspire has two elementary schools in Modesto, Aspire Summit Charter Academy on Hatch Road and Aspire University Charter on Coffee. Great Valley Academy, with a vision-centered development program, has schools in Modesto and Manteca.

Charter home-schooling, or online instruction are also options offered by many Stanislaus school districts and charter companies. Many of those charters also offer social activities and classroom instruction on certain days.

The vast majority of parents, however, will opt to have their children attend the school nearest home. Sign-ups are happening now in most districts. Check the district website or the school office for specifics by campus.

This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Transitional kindergarten, special programs provide early options."