4K Provides 'Solid Foundation'

Michelle Mullen (left) and teacher Jeni Kannass work with Michelle’s 4-year-old daughter Mia on a reading exercise.

By Harvey Black
Contributing writer

Michelle Mullen is “thrilled” with the impact that the 4-year-old kindergarten program at Wauwatosa’s Washington School has had on her daughter Mia.

“I think it’s been a solid foundation for her at school. She just so enjoys it. She loves her classmates,” Mullen said.“What really stands out is these kids are being taught at their level. Kids are being challenged and worked with as individuals.”

That’s a common viewpoint of parents and educators involved in Wisconsin’s popular 4K programs. They see 4K as the beginning of an academic and social journey – the establishment of a community of children, their parents, and teachers.

“I feel like I’m building a community,” said Jeni Kannass, in her fifth year of teaching 4K at Washington School. “So many of the parents don’t know their neighbors, but that junior kindergarten program gives them that opportunity to connect with their neighborhood by connecting with that neighborhood school. A big goal of mine is making parents feel a part of the school and making children feel a part of the school.”

Activities are play-centered, organized around a variety of centers, she said.There are reading centers, kitchen centers, dramatic play centers. For the children, she aims to build a basis for early literacy, language, and math.

“Children learn through their play,” she said.

“If you ask a child in 4K what they did today, they’ll say,‘we played,’ ” said Karen Thaker, who now teaches 5K at Lincoln Elementary School in Wauwatosa, but previously taught 4K.

The play, however, is “purposeful,” she said. For instance in the winter, the boots and mittens the children wear provide an opportunity to have a game in which children can become aware of numbers and other concepts without knowing it.

“You try to guess how many boots we have in our class.And the kids can estimate the number of boots, and you write that estimate down. Then you would count the boots.You might count them by ones.Then you even pattern them – black, blue.You can also sort them into groups – these are all the big boots, these are all the small boots,” she said.

Sorting tasks are one example of allowing parents to become involved in their children’s education,Thaker said.

Evan Day learns early computer skills in the 4K program at Wauwatosa’s Washington Elementary School.

A parent doing laundry can simply ask the child to come and pair up the socks.“That’s a matching game.You can count how many socks. I send home bags of random objects with a book on sorting. Children are then asked to sort with their parents.That teaches the parents, look at all these things we can sort. Parents are also encouraged to read to their children,” she said.

4K also provides a way to offer help to children who need it.Teachers can identify children who may need “early intervention in language or literacy or math,” Kannass said.

“There are children who end up qualifying for speech and language help.That tends to be the thing that tends to be flagged first in junior kindergarten,” she said. “Oftentimes parents – especially if it’s their first child – don’t have a gauge as to where their child should be in terms of speech development. So you’ll see referrals in junior kindergarten.Waiting until 5K, they’ve lost that whole year,” she said.

“One of the things we caught a lot of in 4K was language delays, where the children were hard to understand for their age. If you can get them so young, by the time they are 5 they are speaking better and they’ll function better with their peers,” said Nancy Skwarek, who taught 4K in the Milwaukee Public School system for 18 years before recently retiring.

Beyond the learning of academic concepts, 4K gets children ready for the general demands of school.

“They need to learn even how to raise their hand in group situations,” Skwarek said.“They need to be able to sit there quietly, learn to listen when others are speaking.They need to learn they are not number one all the time.They have to even learn to wait in line at the bubbler.They don’t even know how to walk in line from place to place in the school.They’ve never really been with a group.They need to learn to share.That’s very hard for some of them, where they’ve been at home alone,” Skwarek said.

Children in 4K also learn to take turns.“They need to learn to be able to negotiate and talk with somebody,” she said.

Children in 4K develop a “love of learning,” and learn that they should come to school every day, Kannass said. Kids who begin school at 5K are typically not familiar with the routines and demands of school, and that can make adjustment difficult, she said.

For their part, parents whose children are in 4K sound more than pleased with the program’s impact.

Betsy Daniels’ twins, Brian and Megan, who are now in 5K, profited greatly from their experience in 4K, Daniels said.

“I think it prepared them, being used to the routine of going to school every day. I think it also helped them with their social skills, making friends and learning how to listen attentively, ask questions, and things like that,” she said.

In particular, she said, the 4K experience enhanced her daughter’s confidence.When Megan was in a two-day-a-week pre-school, she cried every day she attended. And for the first couple of weeks in 4K, which is a half-day program, she “had trouble,” Daniels said.

“But by the time she got to all-day kindergarten, her confidence was strong and she just marched right in, and was ready to go without any separation anxiety,” Daniels said.

By the time Stefanie Rossner’s daughter Anna left 4K last year, she had matured greatly. She knew how to function in a large group, listen, and follow instructions.

“There was never a day she didn’t want to go to school,” Rossner said. Moreover she took her lessons from school home with her.

“It made her want to read more. I liked how she would mimic what she learned in school. She would come home and read the story to her little sister, as if she were the teacher,” Rossner said.

“Four years old is a good age to start kids at. Five to me seems old,” Rossner said.

Key to this educational success is the teacher, Skwarek said.

“The number one important component is that the teacher is licensed and trained – is a college-trained teacher in early childhood,” she said. That training ensures the teacher will be ready to teach children social skills and literacy and math skills, Skwarek said.

The teacher also has to be concerned about children’s self-concepts, and should be sure to praise the good efforts of the children in the class.

Private 4K programs fall short of what can be provided in a public school, Thaker said.Teachers in private 4K programs “are just not as well educated” as those who are certified teachers, she said.“What they are able to do with the students is nothing in comparison to a person who has a college degree and is teaching in the public schools. So I think the public schools are miles ahead of the preschools,” said Thaker, who directed a private 4K program for seven years.

Governor Doyle recognizes the value of 4K.The governor’s budget calls for two-year start-up grants of up to $3,000 per pupil in the first year for districts implementing 4K, and $1,500 in the second year. The budget calls for preference going to districts that take “community approaches” to 4K, which means integrating early child care with education.

Wisconsin has a long history of 4-year-old kindergarten, with the state Constitution specifying a free education to all children beginning at the age of 4. And in the 19th century, 4-year-olds did attend community schools in the one-room schoolhouses. In the 1920s schools emphasized kindergarten for 5-year-olds, leading to 4K from page 4 a decline in kindergarten programs for younger children.

But in the 1980s, state legislators looked favorably on 4-year-old kindergarten and renewed state aid for it and boosted aid for the 5-year-old program. Today more than half of the state’s school districts have 4K programs. And more are being added.

The Menomonee Falls, Holmen, Stevens Point, Racine, Hartland- Lakeside, Elmbrook, Baraboo, Whitewater, Parkview, Muskego- Norway, and Almond-Bancroft school districts are just a few that either have decided to implement 4K in the fall or are seriously considering it.

“Early learning prepares children for success in schools and in life and is a wise investment for our children and our economy,” said WEAC President Stan Johnson.

Posted March 25, 2007