Finicky kids sit in their seats and an auditorium bursting with little gasps on Wednesday April 27 as the principal of Sunset Valley, Mr. Cendroski, explained to the soon-to-be kindergarteners that they get to ride the bus for the first time on their kindergarten pre-orientation. Mr. Cendroski starts the night by explaining that the prospective Sunset Valley students will get to experience a day in the life a Sunset student. Each preschool student has a different color folder and it determined which station they would start with first.

Prospective kindergarteners and parents participated in this mini orientation to expose the preschoolers to the Norwin School District. Students and their parents traveled to different stations to experience life as kindergartner in Sunset Valley elementary.

The first room for some of the students was a language arts classroom where the future kindergartens learned how to point with their very own pointer fingers to different images and how to do a “return sweep” where a student will sweep to the beginning of their sentence. The students all gasped when they were told they got to keep their very own pointer fingers and all filed in line with their parents, excited for their next station.

Next, the group then moved to Mrs. Balfe’s room where the kids experienced a mathematics lesson and  practiced counting with the help of bumblebees. The students were given counter chips and little bumblebee cards where they could count the bee hives. Some of the kids even used their pointers from the previous less to focus on the beehives they needed to count.

After the math lesson, the group’s next activity was reading a book together and pointing to the different parts of a book. Students were given an actual paint brush and the reading specialist taught the kids to use their paint brushes to point to the cover, spine, and different words in the book.

The last station the group visited was a lesson on washing our hands, a very important life lesson. The kids watched a fun music video on when and how to wash their hands, then volunteers passed out an activity of little cards of the steps of washing your hands for the kids to put in order.

The night seemed to be a success with all the Young Knights waving happily to the teachers and volunteers of the night, feeling ready for their new start in kindergarten.

Kindergarten and officially starting school in the Norwin School District is a momentous milestone in one’s life and from the looks and sounds of it, these Young Knights are ready to go to school and begin his or journey through the district.

The future kindergartners left the night feeling calm and confident to take on the journey of kindergarten next fall. Their first night of being a Knight was surely a ‘knight’ they will never forget.