GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – As kids get ready to head back to school, some may be getting a little nervous.
Especially those attending for the first time.
Now teachers at Douglas MacArthur Elementary in Green Bay want to give them some confidence.
“Are you excited?” Marie Nicol asked 5-year-old Rylan Yang.
“Yeah!” he answered with a smile at his teacher.
Future students such as Yang have been spending a few hours at MacArthur since Monday.
“Kindergarten is awesome and amazing!” Yang said.
The elementary school’s kindergarten camp helps kids build confidence before their first day.
“I love the little kids, they learn so much,” said Nicol. She’s been teaching kindergarten for decades.
Nicol tells FOX 11 kindergarten is a critical time for young children.
“A lot of times when they come to kindergarten they are very nervous about it. Some of them are leaving their moms or dads or their daycare where they’re very comfortable.”
Nicol and other teachers at MacArthur use kindergarten camp to help kids get out of their comfort zone.
But Nicol says the camp addresses other challenges too.
“They’re going to come in and probably have to do a little bit more work than they used to do.”
More work could add more stress to kindergartners.
“How do you navigate in a group of 21 kids? How do you learn from each other, share and solve problems? A lot of what we’re doing here is giving them that opportunity to work on that now.”
The first day of school for real starts for these kids is September 3rd.
