Kody knows the answer to his kindergarten teacher’s rhyming
riddle. In a flash, he rises to his feet, hand wagging vigorously,
and shouts, “Like Kody, that’s me!”
Margie Emerson-Smith, known to her class as Mrs. E.S., smiles
warmly. It’s these kindergartners’ first hour as students at
Soaring Hawk Elementary, Douglas County School District’s new
school in The Meadows.
Her focus on the first day is the very basics – learning
names.
She has devised a rhyming game with the names of the class,
instructing her young academics to raise their hands when they
recognize their own name in the rhyme.
Her goal is to give everybody a chance to correctly answer a
riddle while individually introducing themselves. The etiquette of
hand-raising, she understands, is a lesson for another
time.
“Very good Kody. Those words all rhyme with your name,” she
says. “Good work raising your hand, but’s lets remember to keep
your legs crisscross applesauce.”
Satisfied, Kody plops cross-legged on the alphabet-emblazoned
rug on which he and his 20 new classmates are gathered.
Mrs. E.S. moves on to the next name.
“Our next person rhymes with Bolivia, solivia, molivia,” she
pauses, smiling at a young girl with tears drying on her
cheeks.
Like much of the class, Olivia’s parents have just left the
classroom, eliciting a brief sob. But she has persevered through
the first agonizing minutes of separation, and as she begins to
recognize her name in the rhyme Olivia returns her teacher’s
smile.
“That’s right Olivia, your name rhymes with all those words,”
the teacher says. “Why don’t you come sit next to me,
Olivia?”
The youngster moves up and sits close to her new teacher for
rest of the session, which proceeds to introduce nearly all of Mrs.
E.S.’ kindergartners to each other before the class is due in a 10
a.m. all-school assembly in the gym.
As the teacher coaxes her class into a straight line for the
journey to the assembly, a boy in blue denim shorts and
firetruck-red Chuck Taylor high-top sneakers tugs on her
shirt.
“What about me?” he asks.
“Oh, my Sean, we didn’t rhyme your name, did we! I’m so sorry.
But I have an important job for you – you’re our line’s caboose,”
she says, gently moving the boy into position. “The caboose is the
most important part of our line because it keeps it
straight.”
Dutifully, the boy follows his class into the hall, which is
flooded with migrating children. As the kindergarten class zig-zags
down the hall, the caboose’s eyes wander to the second-, third- and
fourth-grade classes that file past quietly, organized and in
single-file.
By the time the class reaches its destination, everybody’s
attention has shifted to the older kids surrounding them. As if
learning through osmosis from their seniors, Mrs. E.S.’
kindergarten class becomes quieter and the line straightens a bit
as it enters the gym.
Once inside the 470 kindergartners through sixth-graders that
comprise Soaring Hawk’s inaugural student body sit attentively as
their principal, Jill Donley, welcomes them to their new
school.
“We just have three rules for everybody that are pretty easy,”
she explains to the school. “First, be respectful of others at all
times. Second, be in the right place at the right time doing the
right thing. Third, always follow the directions of adult teachers
and staff.”
After the assembly, as the students file back into their
classrooms Mrs. Donley directs traffic flowing through the school’s
main hall.
“Aren’t our kindergartners adorable,” she says after Mrs. E.S.’s
class meanders past. “First day and full of potential.”
Back in Mrs. E.S.’ classroom, the students have settled down and
are preparing to listen to “The Kissing Hand,” a story about a
mother raccoon that teaches her son a way to overcome his fear of
going to kindergarten for the first time.
After the story, the class of 2017 will embark on a career of
art, music, phonics, and move on to addition, reading, writing,
multiplication, history, foreign languages, biology, civics,
driver’s education, English literature and maybe even
calculus.
But first they must master another one of the basics.
“Before we start the story is there anybody who needs to use the
bathroom?” Mrs. E.S. asks, gesturing towards the classroom’s
sparkling new facility.
“We all know the rules of the bathroom, right? Do we flush the
toilet when we’re done?”
“Yes,” most of the class chirps.
“And do we wash our hands after we flush?”
“Yes,” a smaller percentage responds.
“And do we shut the door while we’re in the bathroom?”
“No!” a young man stands and shouts.
Mrs. E.S. sighs deeply.
“Oh, boy,” she says. “Another important lesson for all of us to
learn.”
Contact Alex Pasquariello at apasquariello@ccnewspapers.net.