National Kindergarten Day is celebrated on April 21st each year in dedication to the man credited with founding kindergarten, Fredrich Frobel, who founded the first kindergarten in 1837. Frobel believed that children needed a space to play in and explore their own interests and creativity. In honor of this special day, Wagner Community School’s five kindergarten teachers have shared a few things about their classrooms. The five WCS kindergarten teachers are Becky Breen, Laura Soukup, Julie Freier, Karissa Eggers, Katie Bartunek and Paula Vilhauer.

Becky Breen has been a kindergarten teacher for the past 34 years. The best part of being a kindergarten teacher for Becky is being able to make special bonds with the students. Becky always took her job very seriously as a kindergarten teacher, hoping to be the second mom that her students needed away from their actual mother. For Becky it is important to treat her students the way she would want her own children to be treated.

Teaching kindergarten is much different for Becky than it was when she first began teaching 34 years ago. Her curriculum then was learning ABC’s, colors, shapes, numbers, cutting, glueing and counting to 20. The program that WCS uses has significantly increased student’s knowledge of future skills that they will be introduced to in kindergarten.

Julie Freier has been teaching kindergarten for the last 24 years. The best part of being a kindergarten teacher for Julie is helping her students learn and grow each year.

Laura Soukup has been teaching for the past 29 years at WCS; the last 19 of those years she has been a kindergarten teacher. For Laura, the best part of teaching kindergarten is seeing the excitement on her students’ faces when they learn something new. She loves how happy the students are to greet her every morning; she could not ask for a better way to start the day.

Karissa Eggers has been teaching kindergarten for the last 11 years at WCS. It has been a fun and wild adventure for Karissa. The best part of being a kindergarten teacher for Karissa is being able to see the joy and excitement on her students’ faces when they learn something new.

This is Katie Bartunek’s ninth year teaching kindergarten at WCS. Katie enjoys witnessing how much growth her students make in such a short amount of time, not only academically, but also in their personalities too. The students begin the school year knowing some letters, sounds and numbers. By the time they graduate kindergarten they are reading, adding and subtracting. For Katie, it truly is amazing to watch and experience.

Some important aspects that are taught in kindergarten are sight words, reading CVC words, writing sentences, number identification, counting to 100, addition and subtraction within the first 10 numbers, number sense to 20 including rote counting, 2-D and 3-D shapes, etc. The students also learn to identify letters of the alphabet, what sounds the letters make, read books, write stories and read short sentences fluently.

Some of the end of the year activities that the kindergarteners have coming up before the end of the school year include, a pool party for good attendance and good behavior; a transition day with the Preschoolers to help them prepare for kindergarten (Mrs. Breen’s class makes a book called “Most Important Things to Know in Kindergarten”; Big Buddy End of the Year party with Mrs. Slaba’s seventh grade class; field trip on May 14th to Yankton to visit the Lewis and Clark’s Visitor’s Station where the students will get to participate in a scavenger’s hunt and Gavin’s Point Aquarium and Fish Hatchery; walk to the Wagner Boys and Girls Club where they will take a tour; and Kindergarten Graduation on May 17th at 12:15 p.m. in the Theatre. The students will perform songs under the direction of Mr. Austin Genzingler and will receive their diploma at graduation.

Happy National Kindergarten Day to both the WCS kindergarteners and wonderful kindergarten teachers!