By JESSICA SIEFF
Edwardsburg Argus

Registration for incoming kindergardeners was held at Edwardsburg Primary School on Tuesday and principal Debora Crouch said parents still have time to register their students for any number of the school’s programs, but “the sooner the better.”

Crouch said hopes are that many of those parents who plan to enroll their children at Edwardsburg Primary will have done so at the Kindergarten Round-Up, giving each student a better shot at program placement.

The school continues to register students for the school through the end of June and continues in August prior to the first day of the new school year.

“Kindergarten Round-Up is extremely important to us in that it helps us in making plans for the next year,” Crouch said.

The school offers a variety of programs and during registration, parents “get to choose the ones they want.”

They’ll have six choices and Crouch said when it comes to their top picks, “we try to honor that but we do place starting on the date that they’ve registered, so the earlier that they register the more apt that they are going to get the program they prefer.

“Of course I can’t promise that,” she said.

Several programs are offered to parents including multiage kindergarten and first grade, Crouch said in the program, students will stay together for two years.

A looping program is also available for kindergarten and first grade students, during which students stay together for two years with the same instructor.

All day kindergarten single grade and half-day kindergarten as well as first grade are also available and a relatively new program is being offered, in which gender specific classes are kept together through first grade.

Aside from keeping classes to girls and boys, looping classes – keeping them together with the same teacher seems to be an effective way to transition students into elementary school.

“What we’ve found is that when you go into a traditional single grade, and I’ve taught that way for 20 years, in the beginning four to six weeks, when you start school there’s a getting to know you period,” Crouch said. “If you’re in a loop, it takes that piece out. Instead of having to do that assessment piece at the beginning of a new year, they hit the ground running.”

Parents who missed Kindergarten Round-Up can still register their children for the upcoming school year.

Students must be age 5 before Dec. 1, 2010 and parents should be sure to bring a county-issued original birth certificate, social security card, current immunization record (including all required doses of hepatitis B series, varicella, MMR series, DTP and polio and proof of residence such as a home rental agreement, purchase agreement or county tax statement.

For more information, contact Edwardsburg Primary School 663-1037.