Hubbard was standing in front of the school with his mother around 7:30 a.m. on Monday watching as dozens of other school children emerged from vehicles and, hand held tightly by their parents, walked into the school and toward their respective classrooms.

Classes were officially to begin at 7:45 a.m., but many of the pupils were still arriving as late as 8:30 a.m. Many parents of incoming pupils in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten stayed on at the school beyond starting time to make sure their sons and daughters settled in to their new surroundings.

Ryan’s mother, Carla Hubbard, remained until around 9 a.m. before leaving for the Robert Goddard Space Flight Center, where she works as a grant specialist for NASA.

‘‘I told him to have a good day but to really enjoy recess because he’s looking forward to it so much,” Hubbard said. ‘‘He’ll remember this day forever.”Ryan’s teacher, Sylvia Johnson, said she was preoccupied with making sure her pupils were comfortable.

‘‘I just want to get them settled in today,” said Johnson.

Johnson went around the room handing out crayons and pictures to her pupils to color. She explained the class rules and guidelines to parents, and comforted one of her pupils who kept on crying.

Over the course of the day, Johnson’s pupils introduced themselves to other classmates, went on a tour of the school and worked on their handwriting.

Johnson has been teaching for 24 years, 10 of those at Kettering. She is one of two kindergarten teachers at the school.

Nina Johnson, the other kindergarten teacher, has also been at Kettering for 10 years.

Her pupils were working on identifying parts of the room, putting new words on the word wall, producing rhyming words and identifying titles in stories.

‘‘I’m very excited for today,” Johnson said. ‘‘I really want to get started on the work we’re going to be doing and meet all the children.”

Besides kindergarten, there are 18 other teachers at Kettering, which has children in kindergarten through fifth grade. The teachers were all outside their classrooms on Monday waiting to greet pupils and parents as they arrived.

E-mail Jonathan Stein at jstein@gazette.net.