David Alba, the new principal of Cranston’s Glen Hills Elementary School, greets students arriving yesterday for the start of classes.

The Providence Journal Kathy Borchers

CRANSTON Scattered showers in the morning. Sunny in the afternoon.

That was the weather at elementary schools across the city yesterday as they opened for the first day of classes with a sprinkling of tears and fears in the morning followed by some rambunctious recess sessions and the start of lessons before the day was over.

At the George J. Peters Elementary School, principal Patricia Caporelli and staff made it look easy as they welcomed returning students while calming the first-day jitters for kindergartners — and their parents.

There were a lot of trembling lower lips as moms and dads let go of their children’s hands in the school cafeteria, but Caporelli and her staff were prepared. They kept tissues handy and would often stoop down to put their arms around particularly anxious students as they escorted them down the long shiny hallways to their new classrooms.

There were some intrepid first-timers who bounced into the building ahead of their parents and fidgeted with impatience when coaxed to pose for a family photo.

In almost every case the tykes were extremely well-equipped for whatever the first day might bring. Although kindergarten class is less than three hours long, most of the school’s newest crop of students were weighed down with colorful, bulging backpacks the size of boulders.

“Some of the little ones will show their nervousness, while the bigger kids most often hold it in,” Caporelli said.

“We work hard to make the first day as welcoming as possible.”

The Cranston public school system, which serves about 11,000 students, was one of the first in the state to start the academic year yesterday.

All Cranston schools were beehives of activity, but what parents and students didn’t see was the hustle and bustle in classrooms throughout the district for the past few weeks.

Most teachers — particularly at the elementary level — put a lot of care and creativity into decorating the rooms, and on Monday at Peters there was a rhythmic percussion of staplers, tape dispensers and paper cutters.

“We really like to make the first day special for them,” said first-grade teacher Jackie Forrest as she finished placing pencils festooned with ducks and frogs atop each desk.

“Some of the first-graders still get nervous, so you have to come in happy and with a big smile,” she said. “It’s easy to do because as a teacher you still get excited about the first day of school.”

By late Monday afternoon, Peters kindergarten teacher Elizabeth Faria was still adding touches to her sunny room. She had made apple-shaped name tags secured with loops of ribbon for the students and outfitted each cluster of desks with work baskets filled with crayons and other art supplies (Scissors and glue were missing on purpose, she said, because wisdom dictates that they only be introduced after youngsters are coached in the proper scissor-passing etiquette and shown how to work with adhesives without getting their fingers stuck to everything.)

As far as first days go, yesterday was pretty smooth sailing, according to Caporelli, who has been principal at Peters for two years and previously was an elementary teacher in Providence.

By mid-morning anxieties had been soothed and lessons were in full swing from the first grade to the fifth, with students working out math problems on the blackboards, listening to stories as they sat cross-legged on the floor, or writing stories at their desks.

It was much the same across the city at Glen Hills Elementary school, except that there were also a lot more “firsts” for new principal David Alba. He joined the ranks of Cranston school administrators this summer after 10 years as a teacher and principal in Providence.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t have a few butterflies,” Alba said. “But I’m really happy be here in Cranston, where there are some exciting things going on with curriculum planning and special-education initiatives.”

Not lacking in energy, Alba, 35, spent much of yesterday dashing around the sprawling school as he met parents and students, and oversaw lunch sessions and an afternoon pep rally to reinforce school policies and the good behavior of all “Glen Hills Gators.”

Also, in order to have an opportunity to make the introductions in a more relaxed atmosphere, Alba has organized an outdoor showing of a Disney movie Friday night. The “screen” will consist of several white shower curtains that Alba bought to drape over one of the long brick walls in the school courtyard.

“I’ve already tested it and it looks pretty good,” he said. “I got into education because I really, really love it and I feel that it should always be fun.”

The sentiment is the same at Peters school where, on Monday, Forrest and other teachers shared their plans for the first day.

“We really want their first day to be a happy one so they’ll want to come back,” she said. “It also needs to be fun because school should always be be fun, even though it also has to be very structured.”

Caporelli agreed. “The more children like school, the more they’ll learn,” she said. “And that’s what we we’re always striving for.”

bpoliche@projo.com