[Times photos: Stefanie Boyar]
Nikki Misner and Chandler Nelson show cards with weather words during kindergarten class at Gorrie Elementary School in Hyde Park.

By SARAH SCHWEITZER

TAMPA -- It was lights-out time in the kindergarten classroom at Gorrie Elementary School in Hyde Park. Little bodies lay sprawled on nap pads, except for three.

Daysha Davis is tested on her knowledge of letters as other pupils work in small groups.

Two girls sat at desks, pencils in hand and heads bent over an unfinished writing assignment about pickles. At another desk, a girl scrunched her face in concentration as a teacher tested her recall of alphabet sounds, a skill required by state standards.

From his pad-side perch, luxuriating in earned nap time, Tayler Weiskopf offered a few observations about the rigors of 6-year-old life.

"Kindergarten is fun," the tow-headed boy said with great solemnity. "But it's hard."

It is an assessment with few naysayers. Kindergarten, once a province of playtime where learning to share was paramount and numbered grades seemed a million years away, is increasingly a serious affair wedded to standards and assessment.

Reading and writing, albeit in the most elementary forms, are no longer long-term goals. Kindergarteners must now meet so-called "expectations," a list of several dozen standards set by the state.

Things that will be measured include: understanding the parts of a book, grasping the main idea of a story that was read aloud, using punctuation at the end of a sentence, knowing the difference between fiction and non-fiction and being able to count to 10, and back down to 1.

The result has been a transformation of days consumed by toys into days consumed with the three R's.

Rachel Singleton, a kindergarten teacher at Gorrie Elementary School, reads a story to her class.

"The whole rate of learning has been accelerated," said Rachel Singleton, Weiskopf's teacher at Gorrie and someone who has observed the evolving landscape of kindergarten for 12 years. "There have been a lot of changes."

Donna Magnuson, a kindergarten teacher at Skycrest Elementary School in Clearwater, observed, "There's just not as much time for cutesy, artsy things anymore. There is so much more that we want them to be doing."

The push to ready the state's youngest charges, teachers and other experts say, has given structure to kindergarten. It is now clear what is expected of kindergarteners, many of whom arrive at school with accelerated language and math skills because more of them have attended preschool.

And the heightened focus on literacy in kindergarten, they say, is in keeping with research that shows early learning is a precursor for later academic success.

"We do have a pretty exact curriculum but careful research has shown that this is important stuff for them to know," said Susan Avery, who oversees kindergarten for the Hillsborough County school district.

But the revved pace has also increased pressure on pupils, which some experts worry may be overwhelming for children.

"There is an inordinate amount of pressure on teachers to teach basic skills, but a lot of learning comes through playful expression and if you don't allow children enough time to throw balls and do puzzles, then writing and reading can be difficult to teach," said Stephen Graves, a professor of early childhood education at the University of South Florida.

Education Commissioner Charlie Crist said the state, which adopted standards specific to kindergarten two years ago, realizes the dangers of pushing children too far too fast.

"That's where the importance of the judgment of the teacher comes in," Crist said. "We have to reach children with a compassionate approach."

To wit, Crist said, kindergarteners are not tested, merely assessed. There is no Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test at the kindergarten level. Rather, kindergarteners are asked to perform certain tasks, like alphabet recognition, while a teacher makes note of their progress, or lack thereof. The assessments, unlike testing, are made throughout the year rather than in one-shot sessions.

But if official testing has not trickled into kindergarten, its ethos has.

At Tinker Elementary School at MacDill Air Force Base, pupils are given what administrators call the Tinker Test on the same day that older students take the writing portion of the FCAT.

"We consider it a building block so that when they get to fourth grade or third grade, they are not afraid of the test," said Felicia Williams, the assistant principal at Tinker. "The spelling can be very creative but just like on the real FCAT, they must focus on a topic."

The more dramatic and universal shift, teachers and experts say, is the mixing of academics with play time. Where once children spent much of the day in unstructured play with the aim of improving social skills, today kindergarten classes pepper play with literacy and math lessons.

"The social skills tend to be incorporated into the academics," said Shannon Donegan, a kindergarten teacher at Alexander Elementary School. "It's a lot more structured."

So, for example, kindergarteners playing house might be given pads of paper to take phone messages with, or perhaps for making a grocery list. When they play with blocks, kindergarteners are now urged to write signs for buildings or streets.

Some experts worry about overly prescriptive playtime.

"We want a balanced approach for children," said Sharon Kagan, a professor of early childhood at Teachers College at Columbia University. "They need to have opportunities to explore, discover and let their curiosities unfold."

In Mrs. Singleton's classroom at Gorrie Elementary School, the mixing of social skills learning and academic rigor is evident.

There are still cubby holes, still crates of blocks. But every bit of matter, including the cubby holes and blocks, is labeled, the better to speed word recognition.

And signs posted around the room explain the purpose behind activities like blocks, once viewed simply as toys.

"Provides practice with social skills, develops fine motor skills, teaches mathematical concepts (shape, size, balance and counting), increases creativity and decision making skills," one sign reads above a tub of blocks.

The trajectory of Mrs. Singleton's lesson plan rarely veers from an academic focus. On a recent day, she led the class in a kind of mini-pep rally for the letter of the day: P. A discussion of polar bears followed. When the 5- and 6-year-olds grew squirmy, Mrs. Singleton directed them in a motion exercise to a little song about penguins. Little hands flew in air to the beat of a quirky song about the birds, while Mrs. Singleton emphasized the first letter in the bird's name.

Five minutes later, the pupils were back in position in front of the blackboard, listening to Mrs. Singleton read a book about a parrot. When playtime outdoors came, it was preceded with a ceremonious handout of a snack: popcorn.

"We do feel that some of the fun things have had to go, but we have to let them go because otherwise we can't get to the enrichment," Mrs. Singleton explained during a brief break in the day. "Face-painting, making hats. Those are the sorts of thing we don't seem to get to anymore. It's just a lot less loosey-goosey."

But she said, it is an accommodation worth making.

"We now know that they can play and learn," she said.

Yamalie Vacquez, 32, the parent of a kindergartener in Mrs. Singleton's class, said she has been extremely pleased with the curriculum, although it initially took her aback.

"I was surprised by the amount of material," she said. "They really have to work hard."

All of which is not news to Sydney Schiff, one of the two girls who worked through nap time to finish up a writing project.

"There's a lot more work than I expected," said the 6-year-old as she colored the front of her cut-out pickle with a green crayon. "And we could use more play time."

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