HALLOWELL – Five sets of twins in kindergarten, and eight sets throughout the school, have teachers seeing double at Hall-Dale Elementary School.

Kindergarten teacher Kimberly Mills said the abundance of twins has some teachers scratching their heads over who’s who. Mills has one set of twins in her class, plus two students who have twin siblings in other classes.

“Everyone is always trying to distinguish between them,” Mills said. “We try to look at their physical features. One of the boys lost a tooth so we’re able to tell them apart. They are individual in the clothing they wear – they don’t dress alike the way [twins] used to and that helps.”

Edith Pinard has two sets of twins in her kindergarten class. She lets the twins sit together when they first come to school to help with the transition, but then has them sit at different tables so they get to know other children and not rely so much on each other.

She said Jessica and John Wallace, 5-year-olds from Hallowell, each have their own friends, whereas Dani and Thea Sweet, also from Hallowell, are more often together and share the same friends.

“I never had two sets before,” Pinard said. “But generally, if one gets sick or hurt usually the other one goes into the same mode. Even if one is on the other side of the room, if something happens and they start to cry, the other one goes over there.”

The birth rate for twins and triplets has been on the rise in Maine. In 1998, one of every 32 children born were twins or triplets, up from one in every 46 children in 1989.

Principal Christine Chamberlain said she doesn’t understand why Hall-Dale has so many twins.

But Jen O’Brien, 33, a Hall-Dale teacher who has a twin brother of her own, has a theory.

“Women are waiting longer to start a family. They’re doing their careers first and getting financially sound before they bring children into the world,” O’Brien said. “When they get in their 30s and 40s, in some cases, it’s too late so they go for the fertility drugs. As you can see here, we have an Easter basket full of twins.”