A change in the kindergarten schedule highlighted the first day of school in Palmerton Area School District on Monday.

The 2017-18 school year is the first in which Palmerton kindergarten students are in the classroom for a full day instead of a half-day program.Instead of two hours and 15 minutes of instructional activities, students now get three additional hours of class time."It's a growing experience with our procedures for kindergarten and our curriculum, but we're very excited," Towamensing Elementary Principal Christine Steigerwalt said. "We've been looking forward to this for quite some time. I think the main thing is getting used to the routine. Lunch was a new experience for a lot of the kindergarten students, but everything went smooth and it will continue to become natural as the year goes on."Palmerton's school board approved the move to a full-day kindergarten program in February, starting with this year's Class of 2030.With Palmerton adding a full-day program, it leaves Panther Valley School District as the only one in Carbon County to send students for a partial day.Towamensing students were introduced to their building Monday with an end-of-day assembly."We have the kindergarten students stand up because the first day of school is really about getting acclimated and showing everyone they are part of the team," Steigerwalt said. "We also introduce our staff so students can put a face to the names."The welcome back assembly also goes over a review of expectations for the school year."It's just a nice way of bringing everyone back together," Steigerwalt added.According to the state Department of Education, about 80 percent of districts in Pennsylvania have full-day kindergarten.