At home with the little ones

One of Kali Lanoue’s goals as a kindergarten teacher is to get to know her charges as much as she can so she can better relate to them. Photo / Per Peterson

Kali Lanoue knows the importance of kids at the kindergarten level learning their letters and numbers, but she also is well aware that relating to each of her students is almost as significant.

“I feel like relating to their lives or things that they’re interested in is important — like if I know I have a kid who loves football, I try to put football books in their book bag,” said Lanoue, who just started her first year as a kindergarten teacher in Tracy Area Elementary School. “Just relating to them in their outside life, letting them write about things when we’re doing writing, whether it’s about football or dance, or whatever they did that weekend.”

Lanoue’s passion for teaching led her directly to some of the youngest of students. She said she appreciates the approach to school kids at that age have.

See more in this week’s paper!