Meadowlark Clark’s kindergarten classroom is a brightly colored temple of letters, numbers and play time.
Clark doesn’t need to direct her students as they shuffle into the Tukes Valley Primary School classroom early in the morning. They sit at their desks, begin cutting letters out of a worksheet already waiting for them, and begin piecing together words. As they finish, each at their own pace, the students wander over to different toys and games for a brief play break.
“They are so capable of learning,” said Clark, who is teaching all-day kindergarten for the first time this year. Battle Ground is offering all-day kindergarten at all its elementary school campuses this year, a year ahead of the state deadline for schools to do so.
Washington is approaching the end of a 10-year process of phasing in all-day kindergarten at elementary schools. In 2007, the state Legislature approved a bill requiring all schools to offer all-day kindergarten by the 2017-2018 school year.
That legislation represents Washington’s commitment to providing quality education, said Robert Butts, assistant superintendent of early learning for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Improving Washington’s high school graduation rate — which was 78.1 percent in May 2015 — starts at the beginning of students’ school careers, Butts said.
“If a kid starts behind in our public schools, they tend to stay behind,” he said. “Being well-prepared is important.”
All Clark County’s school districts now offer full-day kindergarten, but the state has been issuing funding to low-income schools first. Wealthier Camas schools, for example, don’t receive state funding to offer full-day kindergarten, according to a spreadsheet of eligible schools from OSPI.
Vancouver Public Schools voted to begin offering full-day kindergarten in 2012, years ahead of the state mandate. Layne Manning, director of curriculum and instruction with the district, said students are able to spend more time learning through play, have better social interactions and develop better math and reading skills before heading into first grade.
For example, all students journal about what kind of playing they’re going to do, whether that’s cooking a meal in a pretend kitchen or playing dress up. That cements the skills and knowledge young children develop by playing with their friends.
And the efforts are paying off, she said.
“We see more children leaving kindergarten ready for first grade,” Manning said.
Clark has been teaching at Tukes for four years, previously teaching a morning and afternoon kindergarten class. The school has added additional classrooms to accommodate the number of students.
On a recent classroom day after finishing their worksheets, students sat on a brightly colored carpet as Clark sounded out words with her students, a phonetic exercise as the children are beginning to read.
Parents can be hesitant at the beginning of the year before sending their children off to school all day, she said. And indeed, focusing on one thing for a long period of time can be difficult for kindergartners. But kids are quick to adapt, she said.
“The first month of school, there were a lot of tears,” Clark said. “But they have risen to the demand.”
Clark’s been able to expand the amount of time she spends on foundational skills, such as reading and math, which will propel them through the rest of their education.
Then there are the other, softer skills a 2 1/2 hour day never allowed her — art, music and plenty of time for structured play — which helps develop what teachers call the “whole child.”
One of the greatest advantages of full-day kindergarten is the social interactions students receive, Clark said. By interacting with each other as well as with her, students see models of good behavior, begin to understand how to work through problems and collaborate.
“They’re singing, talking and doing it happily,” she said.
