For Julius Ogunde, kindergarten orientation day was a morning of fun activities. Teachers at Bel Pre Elementary School asked him to help them spell his name and then showed him how to plant a sunflower seed and read alphabets from a page.

For his parents, Silver Spring residents Joshua and Jennifer Ogunde, it was a chance to see their son's future school and to meet his future teachers, while filling out the paperwork.

However, the staff was also at work taking notes. Behind the games and exercises, kindergarten orientation, which is going on now in several Montgomery County schools, gives teachers a chance to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a student, especially if it's the child's first experience in a classroom.

"We look at whether they can write and spell. ... When they're planting seeds, it gives us an idea of what their motor skills are like," said Georgia Uruburo, a kindergarten teacher.

In some cases, the assessment can begin just after a child walks in through the front door.

"We ask them to select their name card from a table, we get to see if they can read yet," said Eileen MacFarlane, principal of Charles R. Drew Elementary School in Silver Spring. "We also get to find out who might need extra services, maybe with a language barrier or a learning disability."

Such activities include writing, drawing with crayons, and cutting and pasting, to produce take-home results for parents. Other activities, such as walking along a low beam, matching shapes and listening to a story will provide teachers with indications on motor skills, mental development and socializing.

Sometimes a child will lose interest in the planned activities and go off exploring the room on their own. This is rarely cause for concern, according to kindergarten teacher Christina Waller.

"Especially for kids who haven't been in a classroom environment before, it can be over-stimulating," she said. "There's lots of adults and children in the room, and so many interesting things."

For Drew parent Lisa Case, the orientation also gives the PTA a chance to draw new members.

"We try to get people interested early on. In the fall, it's hard because everybody's so busy," she said. "But it's good to get parents involved when their kids are in kindergarten. Later on, it's harder."

Case noted a growing emphasis on assessment in today's orientation exercises.

"Kindergarten orientation five years ago [at Galway Elementary School] was more of a social event," she said. "Nowadays, it's more of an assessment exercise -- teachers are making things fun for the kids, but they're also sitting by with clipboards, observing."

At Bel Pre, parents get a tour of the school, as well as a portrait photograph with their child. However, academic assessment is also performed. A reading exercise tests the child's ability to differentiate uppercase and lowercase, and also anomalies, such as handwritten letters or the fancy "g" as it appears in print.

Teachers pay attention to subtleties, such as one student's apparent ambidexterity, writing equally comfortably with either hand. Students applying for inclusion under the Early Entrance to Kindergarten program -- allows those born up to a month after the county's cut-off date of Sept. 30, 2000, to attend -- are given an extra series of tests.

"This gives us a chance to see what they might need, and also to see their strengths," said Beverly Belin, a reading specialist at Bel Pre.

For each registering student, there are always forms to fill out, and Drew nurse Sophie Hsieh said just seeing the parents in person is a big advantage.

"We really want them here," she said. "We understand not everybody can make it, but we get much more information when we talk face-to-face, instead of just dropping the forms in the mail."

The information can be daunting: Hsieh needs the parents' feedback for health inventory, dental information, immunization records, tuberculosis tests and lead testing. The county also offers free child health insurance for those who need it, and that comes with its own array of paperwork.

Silver Spring resident Sandra Palmer sat at a table, working on the documents for her daughter, Autumn Brown, who starts at Drew this fall. Palmer, who is a mother of six, has children at Springbrook High School and Francis Scott Key Middle School, in addition to a third-grader daughter already at Drew. It was her first kindergarten orientation at Drew, and she was thankful for the opportunity to work through her issues.

"It's interesting to know where your children will be, and who their teachers are," she said.

Beside her at the table sat her two-year-old son Jahiem Pinnock. While he wasn't keeping watch over his seven-day-old sister, Krissandra Lawson, as she slept in a carry-cot, he took the chance to explore the classroom.

"They'll probably come to Drew, too," Palmer said.