By Judith Roberts
More than 100 superheroes, community workers, princesses and more meandered their way through their school parking lot getting treats – but no tricks – this Halloween.
Lincoln Parish Early Childhood Center’s annual trunk-or-treat brought out over two dozen vehicles for students to visit, allowing these preschoolers to start their Halloween with excitement.
“The kids and parents look forward to it,” said Amy Brister, LPECC principal. “It’s just something for them. We do monthly activities, like at Christmas we’ll do reindeer games, and in the spring, we’ll have a Mardi Gras parade.”
Brister said activities like the trunk-or-treat are vital to the students because it’s important that this first school experience for children be positive.
“While pre-k is very fundamental in preparing them for kindergarten, we teach more than academics,” she said. “We teach social skills, we teach communication skills, because a lot of them don’t know how to tell you how they’re feeling or how to communicate what they’re feeling.
“We teach them how to share and how to use their big voice. We say that we are small people with big voices, and they do have big voices – and their voices need to be heard. And we’re trying to give them the skills and tools in their backpacks so they can be productive citizens of the world.”
Brister said this week has been exciting for the students because it’s been the week they’ve learned about community helpers, and so they had various organizations and career professionals visit and tell about their experience.
“We want to have the parents and community involved,” Brister said. “We want pre-k to be fun.”
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