You are invited to see the “Step-into-Kindergarten and First-Grade program close up on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 from 11:15 am to 12:30 pm at Reiche Elementary School according to a press release issued this morning from the Portland Public School headquarters.

Starting kindergarten or first grade can be a big transition.  This program helps to make that transition easier.  The approximately four-week summer program, being held at Reiche and Talbot elementary schools, is a nature-based school readines program for students entering kindergarten and first grade this fall.  Through engaging, hands-on activities, students build foundational literacy and social skills – ensuring a confident start to their elementary school journey.

Students engage in emergent literacy skills, social skills, motor skills and school routines both inside the classroom and outside in the school garden.  Activities include read alouds, songs, writing activities and tasks that use fine and gross motor skills.

At tomorrow’s event, students will read to worms and other pollinators in the garden and then transition to a garden center with the focus on what seeds need:  soil, air, water, sun.  Garden center activities can include digging and exploring in the soil, making pinwheels to use in the wind, making and experimenting with mini-parachutes, watering the garden and evaporation and shadow experiments.

The program is being provided free to participating families.  The program is funded by the Foundation for Portland Public Schools and PPS.