Raise your hand before speaking. Line up for lunch. Write your name at the top of the page.

School drills like these are familiar to older students, but some Coraopolis and Neville Island 5-year-olds got their first taste of them during Kindergarten Boot Camp, an orientation program to prepare the children for their first day of class Wednesday.

Every morning for three weeks, about 40 children caught a school bus to Cornell Elementary School and spent a half day getting to know their teacher and classmates, learning daily routines and procedures, navigating the building, and practicing basics such as numbers, letters and colors.

When the children finish the program tomorrow, they will receive powder-blue, camouflage T-shirts stenciled with the words, "I survived kindergarten boot camp."

The three kindergarten teachers wore grown-up versions of the shirt during their lessons Monday.

Pam Gibson, a 30-year Cornell teacher, said she normally must spend the first month of school orienting new kindergartners, so the program gave everyone a head start.

It allowed her to assess student abilities without the demands of the regular curriculum, she said, and allowed the children to become more comfortable with their new environment without the older students around.

"It's going to be more relaxed and enjoyable for them," Mrs. Gibson said.

Principal Michael Lucas said the camp laid the foundation for full-day kindergarten, helpful because half of Cornell students do not attend preschool.

Normally, he said, the first day of school is chaotic and overwhelming for youngsters who might be away from their moms for the first time.

"We got all these anxieties and fears out of the way, and now they're ready for school," he said.

Outside the classroom, the kids experienced school bus rides and learned how to find the cafeteria, nurse's office and other important places in school.

The youngsters' lessons included printing their first names, working with numbers, letters, shapes and colors, writing in a journal, using scissors, reading the calendar and saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

Activities were based on different books each week. In Mrs. Gibson's class, a focus on Dr. Seuss spurred a lesson on rhyming words.

When brown was color of the day, students gave examples of brown things -- hot dogs, bears, wooden bookshelves -- and used marshmallows to apply brown paint to pictures of a football.

Soon-to-be kindergartner Tyler Robinson said before the camp, he heard about school life only when his older sisters brought home A's on their report cards. But after a couple of weeks with his kindergarten class, he was getting in the groove.

"We've been drawing pictures, and we got to take three books home last week, and sometimes I've been going to the library for school books," Tyler said.

This summer was the first time Cornell offered the orientation program, funded by a $15,000 grant from the state 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program.

Teachers chose the boot camp theme because new kindergarten students must learn disciplined routines and procedures, Dr. Lucas said.

"Don't get me wrong, they're the nicest teachers in the world," Dr. Lucas said. "They're far from drill sergeants."