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Nearly 4 million kindergartners will be enrolled in the nation’s schools for 2017-18, mostly starting with a blank slate for teachers who may have little information on their skill level and previous learning experience. Reporting on efforts to ease young children’s entry into school, Education Week reporter Christina A. Samuels and freelance photographer Amanda L. Smith featured the Kids in Transition to School program at the Prairie Mountain School in Eugene, Ore., which helps prospective kindergartners focus on school readiness, social skills, and literacy.
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Autumn Edwards and her mother, Lindsey Edwards, walk toward Prairie Mountain School, where Autumn will take part in the KITS program.
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Assistant Teacher Kimberly Fisher talks with a student preparing for kindergarten. Children in the KITS program attend multiple sessions, where they learn the so-called soft skills they will need to be successful when they start school in September.
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Assistant Teacher Kimberly Fisher talks with a student preparing for kindergarten. Children in the KITS program attend multiple sessions, where they learn the so-called soft skills they will need to be successful when they start school in September.
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Incoming kindergartners Gracie Walters, at center left, and Jamileth Ixmatlahua build a block building for a wooden “class city.” The program focuses on activities that help students learn about skills such as sharing and taking turns.
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Lead teacher Katie Rutherford helps her students learn how to line up by playing Simon Says.
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Tyler Johnson, center, is picked to choose the next lesson during a KITS class.
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Tyler Johnson, right, hugs a neighborhood friend after completing the KITS class at Prairie Mountain School in Eugene, Ore.