Yorkville Y115 welcomes new school year with full-day kindergarten

YORKVILLE – It was rainy and dreary outside as the new school year got underway at Yorkville School District Y115, but it was bright and cheery inside as teachers welcomed their new students.

That was especially true at Circle Center Grade School, where the first day of classes on Aug. 25 signaled a new beginning both for kindergarten students and the school district at-large.

Yorkville inaugurated its full-day kindergarten schedule for the 2022-23 school year, giving the youngsters an entire school day of learning, socializing and play, replacing a half-day schedule that remains an option if parents choose.

“This has been a long time coming,” Circle Center kindergarten teacher Cody Pynenberg said. “A full day is best for the students.”

Pynenberg, who is starting her eighth year as a kindergarten teacher, greeted her new students in the school gymnasium before leading the group to their classroom.

There, the students found a space filled with books, toys and other learning materials neatly organized and displayed in colorful bins. The walls were covered with pictures, signs, slogans and messages.

“You want that welcoming, cozy, comfortable feel,” Pynenberg said.

Right away Pynenberg listened for her students’ vocabulary levels and watched to determine how long they can sit still.

“I’m looking for their level of comfort,” Pynenberg said. “Do they know how to ask for help? How do they interact with their peers?”

There are basically three rules in Pynenberg’s class.

“Have fun. Be safe. Be nice,” Pynenberg told her students.

All of the other rules follow from those three and Pynenberg immediately set out to establish the standards of behavior she expects from her students.

Pynenberg appears to have an inexhaustible supply of patience.

Each time a student failed to raise a hand before speaking, Pynenberg gently reminded the boy or girl of the rule.

“Raise your hand. I will call on you, I promise,” the teacher told her students. “If you shout my ears cover up and I can’t hear you.”

After the Pledge of Allegiance, the class immediately got to work. And that meant it was time to play.

Students selected bins filled with toys designed to challenge their imaginations.

Before long, a video with a “clean-up song” was playing and it was time to move on to more academic pursuits.

The students wrote their names in pencil and then used crayons to color pictures of a school building and a school bus.

More activities were to follow, including a time for exercise, a snack break and a story time.

“I try to plan out 10- to 15-minute chunks of time,” Pynenberg said.

The key for Pynenberg on the first day was to allay any fears her students might have and to make them realize that school is a fun place to be.

She read her students a storybook called “The Kissing Hand” about a raccoon who is at first nervous about going to school but soon learns that his mother’s love goes with him.

Pynenberg makes rituals out of even the most basic of tasks.

One-by-one, the teacher called her students to a rack of coat hooks, pointing to the right place for each to hang the ubiquitous backpack.

She used the same procedure to take a picture of each student holding a sign reading “My First Day of Kindergarten” for sending home to proud parents.

Much of the morning’s activities were designed to orient the kindergarteners to their new surroundings.

That included a visit to the cafeteria, where school Principal Shannon Hamm showed the students how they would get their lunches.

Later, Pynenberg led the students on a tour of the school building.

True to its name, the hallways of Circle Center are arranged in two gigantic circles. The teacher showed her new students where to find the front office, the library and other facilities.

Although long a goal, the school district’s decision to implement a full-day kindergarten schedule came about relatively quickly.

The full-day program was approved by the Yorkville School Board on April 25, after the district created an exploratory committee to investigate the proposal little more than a month earlier.

Projected kindergarten enrollment was about 450 students throughout the district, which hired an additional 10 teachers.

At Circle Center, a K-3 school at 901 Mill St. on the city’s near southeast side, there are five sections of kindergarten.

Pynenberg will have 20 students in her class.

To give kindergarten teachers and students a better opportunity to get acquainted, half of each kindergarten class attended on the first day, with the other half to follow on the next. Starting Aug. 30 all of the kindergarten students in each class section will attend together.

Connie Dunn is starting her second year as a kindergarten teacher with Yorkville and is looking forward to the full-day schedule.

“This will give me more time to actually teach,” Dunn said. “I really want to get to know my students so I can meet their needs.”

The kindergarten teaching staff at Circle Center also includes Nikki Fleming, Karen Maldonado and Elyssa Sanchez.

The full-day kindergarten schedule means that the students will have physical education every day, instead of just once every four days under the half-day model.

“It’s going to help us get to know the kids better,” said physical education instructor Doug DeWitt.

The full-day schedule also allows for recess along with art and music instruction.

In all, the kindergarten school day was lengthened to seven hours from three hours under the half-day program and includes an additional 110 instructional minutes.