Students Complete Two Week Kindergarten Countdown Program

Volunteers from IU Health Starke Hospital help students with a project

Students who never had been in a school setting and who will be entering Kindergarten at the Knox Community School Corporation this Fall have been in a Kindergarten Countdown class for the past two weeks. The students have made great strides since their first day, according to Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Peggy Shidaker.

“They have been learning their numbers, their letters, their colors, their shapes and they have learned not only how to get acclimated to the school, but to their peers, to the bus, to the rules and to the cafeteria,” said Miss Shidaker. “Most importantly, they have started to learn the process of learning. We just couldn’t be more pleased.”

Teacher's Aide, Joyce Masson, helps a student with a question

The program was sponsored by the Knox Community School Corporation, IU Health Starke Hospital and Starke United. IU Health Starke Hospital provided each student with one book a day to take home. 19 students participated in this program. The class was taught by Jessica Masson, Teacher’s Aide Joyce Masson and several volunteers from IU Health Starke Hospital. Miss Shidaker was asked if she has seen growth with these students.

“We have them a pre-assessment on the first day and now on the last day, we’re doing the post-assessment and already, with testing half those children, we’ve seen growth. That’s pretty significant considering they’ve only been here for two weeks.”

Miss Shidaker and the Kindergarten teachers will be visiting incoming Kindergarten students before the start of school in August.

“We will start those in July. There will be a Kindergarten teacher and myself who will visit the home of every incoming Kindergartener and we’re pretty excited. We have shirt for every one of them this summer, thanks to IU Health Starke Hospital. We want to go and make contact with the parents, contact with the child, to say ‘here’s your teacher, we’re ready for you to come to school and we’re excited for you to come to school and we want the child and the parents to become part of the Knox Community School Corporation.”