The Bangor school district’s new 4-year-old kindergarten which began Sept. 2 appears to be off to a smooth start.

“It’s been going really well,” said elementary school principal Lois Meinking. “The children seem content, the parents seem happy when picking up the kids and the environment is inviting. I didn’t see any fear.”

There are 45 kids in the 4K program, a bit more than the 40 or so expected. The children come to school two days a week — either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. They are in school from 8:10 a.m. until 3 p.m.

With meals, snacks, reading, books, and activities and play time, the youngsters have plenty to do.

“They’re changing activities about every 20 minutes, so the day goes pretty fast,” Meinking said.

Anne Carpenter, the district’s new 4K instructor, concurs with Meinking on the program’s successful start. “It’s been going real good. We’ve transitioned well and have been having fun.”

A major aim of the 4K program is to ease the coming transition to going to school full time. “We want them to have the skills — sitting, listening, sharing, etc. —so they don’t have to spend the first part of their kindergarten year learning them.

“We’ve been very lucky. The parents have been wonderful, bringing in the kids, asking good questions and offering help. It’s been nice,” Carpenter said.

Acquiring social skills is also of critical importance — which is why Carpenter was so thrilled by her children’s reaction on the third day of the program: “One little boy was missing today and the other kids are already missing him. We know because they’ve asked us about him — that is so neat!”

One of the concerns for the program’s startup was transportation, but that, too, seems to be working well so far.

“We’ve got 4K kids on six out of our seven buses. They ride in the front of the bus and are dropped off first at school,” Meinking said.

She also had words of gratitude for parents of older children who have to deal with slightly different bus schedules every other day as the composition of the 4K class changes.

“Every other day the bus schedule will change slightly, so I appreciate the flexibility of the parents and our staff,” she said.

Meinking noted that the school’s youngest kids are well taken care of.

“They must get 30 minutes of rest after eating. It’s mandated by law. Besides two meals, they get a snack in the afternoon and then they go out to play again. With books, reading, play time and other activities, they can get pretty tired. And if they end up napping more than 30 minutes we will usually let them sleep a little longer.”

In other good news for the new 4K program, Meinking was surprised on Aug. 27 when she received word that the district had received a preschool planning mini-grant of $1,500. “It took so long to arrive that I didn’t think we were going to get it,” Meinking said.

“We will use the money to increase knowledge and best practices among educators from from pre-kindergarten to age eight, to increase family involvement, continue parental involvement, provide high quality information for community partners and staff, and additional training in preschool option and the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards, “Meinking said.