<p>Preschool students get ready to go home for the day on Tuesday at McNary Heights Elementary School in Umatilla.</p>

The four-year-olds in Umatilla School Districts new preschool were supposed to be working on an art project Tuesday morning, but some of them were baffled by the scissors they had been given.

Stick your thumb in here, and your fingers in here, teacher Margaret Anderson demonstrated to one little boy. Now open them. Now close them. Good.

She reached over to stop another child from using the entire bottle of glue on his collage, then listened as one of her students told a friend he wanted to be a human being when he grew up.

The conversations are just unreal, Anderson said, chuckling. I love them.

Anderson is teaching at McNary Heights Elementary this year as part of a new program that offers free preschool to every four-year-old in Umatilla. For students whose parents make too much to qualify for Head Start services but too little to afford a private preschool, its an opportunity they dont usually get.

They have nothing, and they come to school without some of those skills that are very important, Anderson said.

She and three classroom aides help give students a head start on kindergarten by teaching them letters and numbers, but Anderson said a lot of kindergarten preparation isnt strictly academic. Its about teaching students to share, to follow simple directions and to handle their feelings in a healthy way.

We do a lot of social-emotional type stuff, Anderson said. What am I going to do if I get mad or sad?

The preschool is a joint effort between Umatilla School District, the Intermountain Education Service District and Umatilla-Morrow Head Start, helped along by federal grant money. So far the program is serving 50 students twice a week, but Anderson said the district is hoping for 60 to round out her third class.

Superintendent Heidi Sipe said she worked to make the free preschool at McNary Heights Elementary a reality because she wants students coming into her district, with its high poverty rate, to be set up for success from the first day they walk in the door.

Theyll certainly be more confident and more comfortable with the routines of school, she said.

Four-year-old Naeyeli Rodarte seemed comfortable in her classroom Tuesday. She said she liked school so far, especially the playground. And Emma Lenertz said she liked it when the teacher read books to the class.

Anderson said she is excited to be the teacher for the new preschool, and if her past preschool jobs are any indication, the hardest part of the job will be watching the students walk out her door for the last time at the end of the year.

Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536.