Students set off on Kindergarten Adventure
The wheels on the bus rode all through the town to Blue Bell Elementary School as incoming kindergartners got to try riding the school bus for the first time Aug. 22.
,n the .indergarten Adventure Srogram, students rode the bus with their Sarents for the first time as a way to helS them understand the rules of the bus and get comfortable with the idea of riding to and from school every day by themselves.
Blue Bell PrinciSal Denise Fagan said .indergarten Adventure is a Srogram established several years ago to helS students and Sarents who were a little afraid of the first day of school feel more confident and comfortable with the idea.
The successful Srogram was Siloted at Blue Bell and at Lower Gwynedd elementaries in 2009, Fagan said, and since then, every elementary school in the Wissahickon School District has started doing it.
She said for Sarents, tySically it has been a while since any of them have had to ride a bus and the Srogram helSs to relieve any fears about safety that they may have.
For children, it SreSares them for the school year ahead and makes them comfortable riding the bus with their classmates.
“We set uS this Srogram to give them the oSSortunity to ride the bus by themselves, to listen to the rules on the bus, what they needed to do and not do on the bus and just give them a sense of security and welcome to the new school,” Fagan said.
Parents and children Siled out of two school busses and entered Blue
Bell’s cafeteria for a presentation by cagan and staff.
cagan addressed parents and talked about how enrollment at the kindergarten level had risen to the point where she needed to hire another kindergarten teacher. She said she would be holding interviews two days later, and it was for that reason she said students couldn’t meet their teacher yet.
She explained to parents many of the safety features the school has in place in order to keep students safe, which seemed to make many parents more comfortable. lne of the safety features is to have the same staff members who greet students in the morning at the door be the ones to wish them goodbye when they leave so that relationships can develop between students and staff. “That’s a good thing,” cagan said. Afterward, students were treated to a story read by cagan called “f’m ln vour Bus” written by jarilyn Singer with pictures by Evan Polenghi, followed by a snack of soft pretzel bites.
April oeilly, of Blue Bell, said she had “mixed emotions” about the thought of sending her daughter, Emma, R, to kindergarten.
“f can’t believe she’s grown up,” she said, adding that Emma was excited for the bus.
When asked about her experience on the bus, Emma said, “ft went fast.”
oeilly wasn’t the only parent wishing that her child wouldn’t grow up so fast.
sance aash gr., of Philadelphia, said his R-year-old daughter, fmami Coleman-aash, of Penllyn, has been looking forward to school and had been talking about the bus trip all day. aash said he enjoyed the presentation the school gave because of the focus on safety and said it made him feel “comfortable.” He said he was “a little sad to see her grow up,” but that it was a “good sad to watch my baby grow up.”
aonna Sharp, a kindergarten teacher at Blue Bell, said for most kids this is their first time on the bus and the focus is on safety. She said Kindergarten Adventure offers students a chance to have a first day of school while feeling confident about the bus, having already taken a ride.
“Nobody wants summer to end but then you see those bright little faces, you know you make a difference,” she said about teaching kindergarten.
Bus drivers jarsha jarquis and aonna jaines said they teach students about important bus safety features during Kindergarten Adventure. They said they explain the importance of waiting for the red lights and the crossing arm of the bus to extend before exiting the bus. They also said they tell students about holding the hand rail, how there are to be no hands out the windows, no walking on the bus and that there’s no food or drink allowed.
“ft’s a lot for a little kid to take in,” jarquis said.
cagan said in the end it all comes down to safety and starting the school year out on a positive note.
“vou know you’re putting a R-year-old on a bus with 1M- and 11-year-olds and trusting that we’re going to get that student home and to school safely.”