Your First Five Days of Kindergarten!

Kindergarten is about learning exciting new things while making new friends. Sometimes starting something new makes people nervous -- including families and teachers! This class is to remind everyone that kindergarten is FUN! 

In this five day class, you'll get an idea of what you'll do in your actual kindergarten classroom during your first week of school. 

I’ve been a kindergarten teacher since 2005 so I have a pretty good idea of what your children will likely experience during those first five days of their formal education journey. In this series of classes, each session will begin with a silly song of welcome to help everyone feel comfortable. We will then have a brief conversation about a topic related to kindergarten in order to get to know one another a bit. From there, each class will have its own focus related to something that your child will likely experience during that first week of school. Here’s an outline of those areas of focus:

Day 1
  Topic: Taking a belly breath as a strategy to calm those first day jitters and making friends.
  Activity: Practicing the Five Fingers Belly Breath and having simple conversations with	others.

Day 2
  Topic: Drawing as pre-writing that everyone can do by using circles and ovals.
  Activity: Using circles and ovals to draw a picture of ourselves.

Day 3
  Topic: Understanding that letters make sounds.
  Activity: Singing alphabet songs and identifying the sounds made by the first letters in our names.

Day 4
  Topic: Counting with one-to-one correspondence
  Activity: Coloring bubble numbers 0-10 and matching numbers to quantities.

Day 5
  Topic: Playing responsibly, respectfully and safely with others.
  Activity: Conversing about and drawing pictures of responsible, respectful and safe play.

Each of these topics will be introduced with a song and an illustration to help generate conversation. In addition, each class will end with a positive affirmation to help children understand that they are ready for this new chapter in their lives.

Available for each class  will be some brief “Family Notes” – pointers to help the adults know a bit more about what your child will be learning and doing during those first days of kindergarten. Along with these notes will be a fun coloring page for your child related to the day’s topic. Finally, if children have questions about kindergarten that arise after class, you are invited to send them to me via the classroom platform and I will answer them to the best of my ability!

Will your child be starting kindergarten in the coming months? If so, join us in learning about all the FUN that kindergarten should be!