Day one to Day Last

SCHOOL BEGINNINGS

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DAILY ACTIVITIES:

CIRCLE TIME ACTIVITIES:

ABC Grab Bag: Have each student pull out a letter from a bag and try to name it.

OTHER ACTIVITIES:

(KH BOOK)Make handprints using paint on paper plates. Add the phrase "These people love me...." and have them write names OR write those suggested by the student if needed for that child. First, teach the children the sign for I love you in sign language.... then.....
1. Have the children cut out a pretraced heart (big - on 81/2x11 paper).
2. Have them trace and cut out their hand print.
3. Glue the palm of the hand on the heart (don't glue the fingers yet). Or do it the other way, make the hand bigger and the heart smaller to fit in the middle of the hand.
4 Have the children pull down the middle and ring fingers, and glue them down to the palm of the hand. The other three fingers glue in place (pointing up). This will be the I love you sign.
5 Write the words I love you on the heart or mount the heart on a rectangular piece of paper and write I love you underneath the heart..
(KH BOOK)Make kissing hands to eat out of handprint sugar cookies and chocolate kisses!
(CCBB BOOK)Use small plastic drink bottles(like what bottled water comes in) and you let the children put alphabet pasta, beads, glitter, beans, and whatever else you think they'll enjoy inside the bottle. They can decorate the outside of the bottle with alphabet stickers. They could even make a little grass skirt out of construction paper or art tissue to tape around the bottle. These Chicka Boom Boom bottles can them be used when you retell the story. When you read the words "Chicka Chicka" the children shake their bottles. When you say "boom boom" they tap the bottles on their hands. My class had a great time making and playing with these. They couldn't wait to take them home
(CCBB BOOK) Assess capital letter recognition on a coconut tree. For every child, make a smaller coconut tree with capital letters on it. For every letter that the child knows, put a sticker on it. When they know all or most of the letters, they get to take the tree home.
(CCBB BOOK) can be used at the beginning or at the end of the year or both... Make T-shirts with fabric crayons. A tree on the front with CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM and on the back WE KNOW OUR ABC’S

Before School Starts..to do with parents:

Read the book to them and tell them you will read it to the students on the first day. Many parents then give their children a kiss in their hand on the first day. The kids get very excited when you read the story and they have a kiss like the racoon.

At home after the First Day:

Make a lunch bag raccoon puppet, give each child a heart stamp on the hand. Make a little 1 page booklet out of one sheet of paper. Fold the paper in half (like a card). Photocopy a picture of Chester with his mom and put this with the title and author of the book on the front. Inside write "Today was my first day of kindergarten. We read the book "The Kissing Hand" by Audry Penn. Ask me to tell you about it."
When you finish reading it, give each child 2 heart stickers, 1 for them and 1 for Mom (Then do a little take home paper that has a little xeroxed picture of Chester, the racoon and the title/author. The child traces around his/her hand and stamps a heart in the middle. There's a place for the parent to trace his/her hand as well. On the bottom of the paper, it says,"Trace your mom or dad's hand and tell them about this special story."
Read the book at either your orientation, your first day of school, or send home the back pack the first week. Make sure you have 3 or 4 backpacks or book bags made up so the children don't have to wait too long for a turn.

CENTERS:

Center 1

SELF-PORTRAITS--Have each child draw a picture of their first day in kindergarten. Have mirrors available, so children can get a good look at their faces! You might take a sentence of dictation from each child so their parents know what they did on their first day! Instead of sending the picture home, you might want to save it until the end of school. At that time, ask the children to draw a second portrait. Compare the two pictures and discuss similarities/differences. There are some poems to use with self-portraits in the table below. The first poem in each set is for the first portrait. The second poem in each set is for the second portrait at the end of the year.

Center 2

HANDS W/ STAMPGet die-cut hands in different body colors. The children can choose the hand color they want and use either a heart stamp on the hand or use a stamp of lips on it. They can take this hand home to their parents.

Center 3

Take a metal cookie sheet. Recreate a coconut tree with construction paper to glue on the cookie sheet. Cover the entire sheet with clear contact paper. Put the sheet, magnetic letters and the book in a large bag for retelling the story.

Center 4

After talking about the letters in the book, teach the kids the word "initials." Look at your name cards with first and last names written on them, then help each child recognize which letters are their initials. Have a set of letter stencils in which there are duplicated many of the more commonly used letters (S, T, etc.) help each child go through the pile of stencils and find the two letters that are their initials

Center 5

SONGS/POEMS:

Poems for portraits/first-last day

Here's a picture of me
For you to see
That I'm going to Kindergarten
As happy as can be!

Here's another picture of me
Still as happy as can be
Kindergarten was lots of fun
But now I'm ready for Grade One!

Poems for portraits/first-last day

Let's stand up and give a cheer!
Kindergarten's finally here.
One, two, three, hip, hip, hooray!
Here's my picture the first day!

From the first day to the last,
Kindergarten went too fast,
Summertime will be a ball,
But nothing beats first grade next fall.

Sing this to the tune of "Kookaberra"

Raccoon sleeps in a hollow tree
While the sun shines on you and me.
Sleep, little raccoon, (children hold puppets and pretend they are sleeping)
Sleep, little raccoon,
Warm and cozily.
In the darkest part of night
Raccoon has the best eyesight.
Look, little raccoon, (children have puppets peering around the room)
Look, little raccoon,
My, your eyes are bright.
Raccoon hardly makes a sound
When he prowls all around. (children hold puppets and quietly creep around the room)
Hunt, little raccoon,
Hunt, little raccoon,
Find food on the ground.

First Day of School
By Aileen Fisher

I wonder if my drawing
Will be as good as theirs.
I wonder if they'll like me,
Or just be full of stares.
I wonder if my teacher
Will look like Mom or Gram.
I wonder if my puppy
Will wonder where I am!

If You're Friendly and You Know It
(to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It"

If you're friendly and you know it, clap your hands.
If you're friendly and you know it, clap your hands.
If you're friendly and you know it, and you really want to show it,
If you're friendly and you know it, clap your hands!

Following is a poem to pass out to parents either at Open House (we have ours before school starts) or on the first day of school.

THERE'S NOTHING IN MY BAG TODAY

Today I did my math and science,
I toasted bread.
I halved and quartered.
I counted, measured, used my eyes,
and ears and head.
I added and subtracted on the way,
I used a magnet, blocks and memory tray.
I learnt about a rainbow and how to weigh.
So please don't say, anything in your bag today?
You see I'm sharing as I play.
I learned to listen and
speak clearly when I talk,
to wait my turn, and when inside to walk.
To put my thoughts into a phrase,
to guide a crayon through a maze.
To find my name and write it down,
to do it with a smile and not a frown.
To put my pasting brush away,
So please don't say, what, nothing in your bag today?
I've learnt about a snail and a worm,
remembering how to take my turn.
Helped a friend when he was stuck,
learnt that water runs off a duck.
I looked at words from left to right,
agreed to differ, not to fight.
So please don't say, did you only play today?

SHARED READING BOOKS:

PREDICTABLE CHARTS:

POCKETCHART POEMS:

CLASS BOOKS:

FEELINGS ABOUT THE FIRST DAY (heart picture in hand to go with KH BOOK) As a small group activity, have the kids each make a page for a class book. Use big washable stamp pads from Lakeshore to make handprints or just trace a hand on paint sponged paper and have them cut out their hand. They then dictate to an adult who brought them to school,and how they felt. Take pictures of the children with our digital camera, and put a heart shaped picture of the child in the middle of the handprint on their page. Then laminate the pages, put on the cover, and bind the book.

____________GETS READY FOR KINDERGARTEN(MB..K BOOK) Talk about how we get ready for school in the morning. What we did to get ready for our first day of school. Identify ABC's,animals, and rhyming words in the story. Make up class story:"___________ Gets Ready for Kindergarten". . . Make up rhymes for each child's name..Have the children each complete a page for a class book about how they got ready for kindergarten.(________ got ready for kindergarten by ______________)

POSSIBLE BOOKS TO USE:

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by John Archambault.

BULLETIN BOARDS:

(KH BOOK) Give the children each a pre traced heart that they will cut and then give them a pre cut hand to paste the heart on. On each child's hand, write: ______'s Kissing Hand and make a bulletin board out of them.
(CCBB BOOK) Create a bulletin board with a large coconut tree. Give each child a precut letter to decorate and put up on the bulletin board.
(CCBB BOOK) Put up a coconut tree on a bulletin board or wall and put letters on the tree.
Take a photograph of each child on the first day/week of school. Crop the pictures and use them all year as part of a special bulletin board in my room. In September, put the pictures on apple die cuts and put them on the board around a large paper basket. The caption can read "Mrs. ____________'s Pick of the Crop." Other bulletin board captions are listed below:

October: Mrs. __________'s Pumpkin Patch (die cut pumpkins)
November: . . Flock of Turkeys (turkeys)
December:. . . Little Angels (angels)
January:. . . Snow Babies (snowmen)
February:. . . Sweethearts (hearts)
March:. . .Leprechauns (shamrocks)
April:. . .Spring Chicks (flowers)
May:. . . Graduates (grad caps)

The kids look forward to seeing each month's new caption, and it saves me a lot of time, because the board is basically the same from one month to the next

(CCBB BOOK) CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM LOOK WHO'S IN MRS. _______'S ROOM and you put up the letter each child's name begins with

LINKS TO EXPLORE:

The Kissing Hand Links:

Homework idea Cute idea of hand with heart and page for class book

Excellent ideas for activities, sorted by content

Info about story and links for cookie cutters, poem by Lauren...Best

Raccoon coloring book

Raccoon getting off of school bus

More activites to use with The Kissing Hand

Kissing Hand Teaching is a work of Heart

Additional Notes:

Parent Care Bags: These can be placed in a basket outside the door on the first day of school with a note that states, "Letting Go Is Hard To Do." Fill a ziploc baggy with a tea bag, tissue, a cotton ball, and a copy of the following poem:

Dear Parent,

Thank you for entrusting your child to me. I promise to do my best every day to be your child's companion in learning. After you have wiped your tears, make yourself a nice warm cup of tea. Put your feet up and relax. Then , hold the cotton ball in your hand. The softness will help you to recall the gentle spirit of your child. I will work alongside you this year to help your child grow.

Mrs. ___________

Resources: