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Teachers say they already are seeing the benefit to students.

“I was worried in the beginning and it is a long day,” said Granite Hill Elementary School kindergarten teacher Lorena Fong, who has taught in the district for more than 30 years. “I feel like it's been beneficial for the kids. “For the most part, they do well with a full day.”

Porsche Austin, Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction, said the decision to move to a full-day program for both transitional kindergarten and kindergarten resulted from many factors. One issue driving the decision was the fact that many parents work and found a half-day program challenging, Ms. Austin said. 

“We also saw the need academically,” she said. “They (students) needed more time to process some of the things that they’re being taught in the TK/K classrooms.”

Students work on a wide variety of skills, but perhaps the most important is phonemic awareness and literacy, Ms. Austin said. 

“The foundation of their language and literacy is here in the TK/K classrooms. That literacy piece goes through all content areas. They’re also learning to count, they’re learning to put groups of numbers together.”

A typical TK/K school day is packed with lessons on reading, writing, math, social studies, science and more. There is also plenty of time to play, and that provides a learning opportunity as well.

“We do a lot of play-based learning with them and that’s where they’re able to use their language and vocabulary in a low-stakes kind of setting where they’re just talking to each other and hearing things that are academic but they don’t realize it’s academic,” Ms. Austin said.

Playing in the kitchen, for example, helps students learn to interact with each other and practice their communication skills. Doing puzzles reinforces the importance of paying attention to details.

“They’re learning how to be social, how to share, use their imagination,” Ms. Fong said. “ When problems come up, they come up naturally so we can talk about it and how to solve those problems, so play is an important part of our day.”

Granite Hill Elementary School teacher Laurie Riemer has taught for 39 years, of which 25 have been with TK/K students. 

“A surprising part about TK, especially, is the amount of learning that they are doing in the classroom. It’s not just about me standing up there and teaching them something. They’re using all of the things that are around them, their environment, each other to learn so many things.”

Key to student success is setting up a routine and making students feel safe and welcome, teachers said.

​“They know that we’re together in this, that I’m in it with them,” said Ina Arbuckle Elementary School kindergarten teacher Martha Molina, who has been in the district for 31 years.

“They’re capable of learning,” Ms. Molina said. “Sometimes people think.  ‘Oh they’re so little…they can’t do much,’ but that depends on the expectation of the teacher…when you present something to them at their level and they do it, then in their minds, they feel ‘Oh, I can do this.’ When they have that success, then they notice that they can learn many things.”

“This is why I love being here,” she said. “ Because this is where everything happens, this is where everything is set for the future.”