Back to School

Stepping Into A New Year

 

The start of school is always an exciting and tender time for preschoolers

and parents alike.  For many little ones this is the first time they are away from

their parents, and as fun as school is, it always takes a little time to adjust and make those big steps into a school year.



 

This year to help with making those steps into school, I wanted

to make it easier and fun to enter school.

I thought if the children were preoccupied with the footprints, their anxiety

may be relieved. So...

 

1,2 Welcome to school

3,4 Come in the door

5, 6 Take off shoes and give a kiss

7, 8 School is great

9, 10 Let's jump in

 

We kept this up for a week, so that the kids had something to focus on rather than drop off.

It seemed to work, because most mornings they have been doing just what it said...jumping right in.

 

Another activity we did those first couple days to help the children

feel more at ease in school was read and do a project based on the book

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and illustrated by  Nancy M, Leak

 

 

This is a beautiful story about a reluctant raccoon starting preschool.

In the story the mother raccoon places a kiss in the center of her son's hand and calls it, the "kissing hand," and whenever her son needs to feel his mother's love, he could hold his kissing hand to his face and know he is loved.

 

To help the children out, I read the story and they each received a kissing hand sticker of their own, but we also made our own kissing hands.

 

 

After they painted their hands, I placed a heart sticker on their hand, and

I loved seeing the surprised faces they had when they lifted up their hand to find

a heart in the middle of the print.

 

We also started a wall of pictures with their names written on a board in the pictures.

I placed these above the chalk board in school for the children to feel a part of the space.

I also placed them above the chalk board because some of the children are showing interest in writing their names.  This is something I hope for, but I do not pressure them into writing, I feel it should be a natural process so that they do not have resistance to letters and writing down the road.

Having their pictures with their names above the black board gives them the space to practice their names and their friends names on their own and with their own natural inclination.

 

 

 

We have a great year ahead of us!!!