Quick Click: 10 Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Kindergarten
Start a lifetime of learning with a kindergarten kickoff to remember.
Count Down to Kindergarten
1. Make a "Me Mural" to strengthen your child's sense of self. On an oversized piece of paper, create a collage of his strengths, interests, favorite things, friends, family, home, or pets.
After-school Follow-up: Carve out a place for kindergarten in the mural. Add new friends, the teacher, or favorite parts of the school day.
2. Offer Ownership. As you are shopping for school supplies, let your child pick out the colors and styles she wants, and at home, customize them with craft materials. The night before school, let her organize and pack her own bag.
3. Create a Launch Pad. Find a corner in your house for your child's shoes, backpack, and lunchbag. Laminate a favorite drawing and place it on the floor for a fun and reassuring jumping-off point.
After-school Follow-up: Decorate the area with the fruits of each day — artwork, handwriting exercises, or awards. Or, compile your child's finest works in a "Best of" Binder and keep it in the nook.
4. Do a Dress Rehearsal. The first day doesn't have to be a big surprise. Pretend you're the new teacher by introducing yourself, going over the weather, reading a story, and making art projects. Before you know it, your child will forget about school jitters and focus on the prospect of enjoyable learning.
After-school Follow-up: Get others in on the act. Invite your child's friends to create art or improvise skits related to their school days.
5. Build Confidence with Books. Read stories about school or other new adventures. Referring to a favorite character's bravery may help your child pinpoint anxieties and summon his own courage in an unfamiliar situation.
After-school Follow-up: Write and illustrate a story about your child's first day. This exercise helps him voice fears and find ways to deal with them, or commemorate ways he conquered worries or mishaps. Including classmates as book characters may also help him develop empathy skills. Plus, the end result makes a wonderful keepsake!
6. Envision the Future with a Customized Calendar. Whether your school district mails out academic calendars, or you buy your own, personalize it by adding with holidays, birthdays, and other events. Tell your child that as the year progresses, together you can document school plays, assemblies, field trips, and her many accomplishments. Show her a school year that can, and will, contain a wealth of possibility.
After-school Follow-up: In addition to documenting standard landmarks, mark unexpected surprises. If the day was of personal importance, even for small reasons — she got ice cream, went to a new friend's house, or scored a goal on the playground — illustrate it!
7. Play the Name Game. Names will be an important lesson on the first day of school. Write a poem or make a picture illustrating with your child's name. Names are important social devices, and the more comfortable your child is with giving out his name, the better he can use it to meet other children.
After-school Follow-up: Write a short name poem or message for each child in the class and encourage your child to distribute them.
8. Make an "About Me" Booklet. Let your child's teacher know who she is and why she is excited about school. Crafting the booklet will let your child envision her new teacher in a friendly light and make her more at ease when they meet.
After-school Follow-Up: Make an "About My Teacher and Classroom" booklet. Challenge your child to remember as much as possible about the people in her life. Expanding the book throughout the year may help you understand your child's developing relationship with her teacher and her classmates.
9. Draw a Home-to-school Map. Create a poster of the route to school, complete with photos and illustrations of landmarks. If there are stores or parks along the way, visit them. This deepens your child's understanding of the connection between home and school, and will bolster his confidence as he learns to alternate between the two.
After-school Follow-Up: Do any of her new friends live along the route? Add their homes and pictures to the map.
10. Keep Confidence High with Photo Mementos. Take pictures of your kindergarten kickoff activities. Or stage a fashion shoot with your child's favorite clothes, friends, school supplies, artwork, and toys to help him remember, in the near and far future, who he is, where he comes from, and the support he has at home.
After-school Follow-up: Capture a new photo memento each week and compile them in an album.
Remember that the first day is not the only important period in the adjustment to school. Continuing to document the beginning days of school with your child — tracking highlights, finding day-to-day similarities and differences — will set a precedent for school day reflections and discussion.
by Julian Darwall and Jessica Tom
original article is here
these are very helpful, at least for the last minute
goodluck mia at taska akas ilmu
goodluck adam at pra sk sg talam
semoga Allah melindungi anak-anak mama,
gloomy mummy,
