A student in Kristen Geremia’s kindergarten class at the James L. McGuire School in North Providence puts away her activities box in its proper storage location.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

NORTH PROVIDENCE — Teachers and youngsters settled into their new surroundings yesterday as the School Department rolled out its first full-day kindergarten program in its six elementary schools.

The move toward a full-day program after years of splitting classes into morning and afternoon sessions entailed not only hiring six new teachers, but buying all the things that typically go into a kindergarten classroom from chairs, tables and books to teacup and wooden grocery sets to blocks and Legos.

At the James L. McGuire Elementary School on Central Avenue, teacher Kristen Geremia was off to a good start.

After realizing over the weekend that some of the materials were still being shipped and might not be available for the first day, Geremia took matters into her own hands and brought in a rug, books and charts from home. As it was, a school custodian began delivering the new supplies around midmorning as the teacher was explaining to her 19 kindergartners how to sit — “belly buttons to the table” — while having their morning snack.

“I’m really excited. This is the point in my life I always dreamed about,” she said. “I always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher in a public school.”

Before her appointment to the full-time post, Geremia had worked as a preschool teacher at the Genda Learning Center in Cranston and as a substitute teacher in North Providence and West Warwick.

That experience taught her that teachers should always come prepared, prompting her to make sure she had hand-wipes and animal crackers for children who forgot to bring snacks. On the first day, she did have trouble getting the lid open on a school-owned CD player, but was rescued by the school psychologist who explained how to open it.

Her plan for the day: routine, routine and more routine, as a way of getting youngsters used to being in a classroom with a full schedule.

Principal Lorraine Moschella said having a new teacher is always a fabulous thing for the teacher and the school.

“You will never be a new teacher again,” she said of the experience. “I remember when I was a first-year teacher with all those emotions running rampant. But you learn, and [Geremia] has a lot of support here. We have a mentoring program and other teachers who will be helping her.”

One of those mentors is Gail Boyce, who has been teaching kindergarten at McGuire for 15 years. Until now, Boyce’s kindergarten class met in the basement, where she had a nice room with two sinks and a bathroom. Under the new configuration Boyce’s and Geremia’s classrooms are across from each other on the first floor, in rooms that had been for the fourth grade, which has moved to the second floor.

Boyce said she’s excited that full-day kindergarten has finally become a reality in North Providence.

“I’ve waited for this for a long time,” she said, because a full-day program will make it a little easier to squeeze in all the things she and others have always wanted to teach.

“Half-days were very difficult, though I just say we did manage to get a lot done in the two and a half hours that we had the children, including reading and math and things that, when I went to kindergarten, we weren’t expected to do.”

Boyce said there is a concern sometimes that when teachers have the opportunity to teach the same class all day, they tend to try to force a first-grade curriculum on children 5 or 6 years old. Lessons still need to be age-appropriate, but she sees new opportunities now to get into things she couldn’t before, such as author studies and hands-on experience with cooking.

By late morning, Boyce thought things were going smoothly. Her students, she said, appear to be good listeners and came in very ready.

Geremia said she believes it’s good to expose children to a full day of learning. “It’s good for the parents, too, especially when we are coming into a society where parents are working.”

According to estimates by School Supt. Donna Ottaviano, the cost of implementing the full-day program townwide is about $500,000. That’s down from the superintendent’s original estimate of $1.2 million.

Moschella said it appeared yesterday that most of the parents were very happy that the program is now full-day.

rdujardi@projo.com