‘‘This is our second year with a pre-K program. We doubled in size from 20 children in one class to 40 children in two classrooms,” said Leslie Lowe, Beltsville assistant principal.

Lowe said the influx of children would not negatively impact the level of teaching instruction at the school by spreading the teachers too thin.

Lowe said Beltsville has the largest elementary student population in the county, with 800 pupils; its maximum capacity is 845.

As she helped her son Daymer prepare for his first day, Concepcion Oliva of Beltsville said having a pre-kindergarten program is extremely important in helping young children to develop faster with teacher instruction and peer interaction. Before pre-K, Daymer was in daycare.

‘‘I was excited and nervous at the same time because he would be with other children,” Oliva said.

Beltsville resident Sidique Stronge said the expansion of pre-kindergarten is a great asset to the school.

‘‘Pre-K allows young children to interact with children their own age in a strong learning environment, instead of daycare or just staying at home,” Stronge said.

For Hollywood Elementary School, pre-kindergarten was a new beginning entirely.

‘‘Four-year-olds are so different from five-year-olds, and we learned that on the very first day,” said assistant principal Nancy Schickner. ‘‘Pre-K has many benefits, especially with social interaction. At our school, 50 percent of the families are Hispanic and their first language is not English. What better way for the younger children to learn than being in a class where the language is spoken as a daily interaction?”

The pre-K program has 16 pupils, two classes of eight each. Schickner said the program has a capacity of 20 children in each class.

‘‘After Sept. 4 we will be able to take some more children that are on the waiting list [13 pupils] and put them in the program,” Schickner said.

E-mail Marcus Ngbea at mgnbea@gazette.net.