Starting School
Poems
& Songs
 Welcome
To Kindergarten
(Tune: Deck the Halls)
Welcome to our
kindergarten.
We will learn a lot of things today.
Here we are in kindergarten.
We will have a lot of time to play.
We will learn the alphabet and
We will learn how to write numbers, too.
We'll have fun in kindergarten,
'Cause there are so many things to do!
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Good Morning Boogie
Hello Neighbor, what do you say?
(Children bow to each other)
It's going to be a happy day.
(Children clap hands together)
So greet your neighbor,
(Children give each other high fives)
And boogie on down.
(Children wiggle their hips)
Give 'em a bump,
(Children bump their hips together)
and turn around.
(Children turn around)
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Give
Me Five
(Hold up 1
finger as you say each rule.)
Eyes are watching
Ears are listening
Mouth is quiet
Hands are to myself
Hearts are caring
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Walking in the Hall
(sing to Doo Wah Diddy,
Diddy)
Here we come, just a walkin’ down the hall,
Singing "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy Dum
Diddy Doo!"
Eyes ahead, hands by our side and standing tall,
Singing "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Doo!"
We look good, (we look good)
We look fine, (we look fine)
Here we go in our line,
Singing "Doo
Wah Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Doo!"
Variation:
Use the first letter of each child's name to practice phonemic awareness
and make a silly song!
ex., (Bobby) ... Boo Bah Biddy Biddy Bum Biddy Boo! |
Happy Day
(Tune: Merrily We Roll Along)
We have had a happy day
Happy day, happy day.
We have had a happy day,
See you all tomorrow. |
Literature Connections
Miss Bindergarten Goes to Kindergarten
by Joseph Slate
Big Book! |
The Kissing Hand
by Audrey Penn |
Franklin Goes to School
by Paulette Bourgeois
|
Froggy Goes to School
by Jonathan London |
Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10
by Judy Finchler
|
Arthur's Teacher Trouble
by Marc Brown |
I Spy School Days
by Jean Marzollo |
Annabelle Swift, Kindergartner
by Amy Schwartz |
Timothy Goes to School
by Rosemary Wells |
Owen
by Kevin Henkes |
When You Go to Kindergarten
by James Howe |
Emily's First 100 Days of School
by Rosemary Wells
|
Balanced Literacy
Shared Reading |
| Begin by making predictions about
the story. Take a picture walk in the book and tell what is happening in the story. Read
the big book aloud to the students, allowing them to chime in when they know the text.
Reread it again using an oral cloze procedure, leaving out words and having the students
supply them. Model reading by pointing to the text. Focus on the following concepts of
print: words tell the story, left to right and top to bottom progression, spacing between
words, use of capitalization, use of punctuation, letter recognition, understand
letter/sound correspondence, and developing vocabulary and comprehension. Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten
Read the book. Talk about how you got ready for school in the
morning. How is our classroom room like the one in the book?
Use highlighter tape to have the children help identify the rhyming words
either in a big book or on a chart |
| Guided Reading |
Mini lessons may
include comprehension, story elements, phonemic awareness, or concepts of print.
Lesson 1: Discuss the story. Ask questions to check comprehension and
discuss story elements.
Lesson 2: Focus on a letter and match a letter card to the text of the book.
Lesson 3: Focus on the sound from the previous lesson. Say a variety words
some of which start with the focus letter and have the students indicate by thumbs up or
down if the word begins with that letter.
Lesson 4: Match word cards to the text.
Lesson 5: Review all the previously taught concepts.
Identify ABC's,
Talk about animals and rhyming.
Make up own story:
______ gets ready for Kindergarten
using made up rhymes for each child.
Copy
all the animal pictures from the book and shrink them to fit on index cards. Write the
kind of animal that it is beside each picture (begin the animal word with a capital
letter). Laminate.
The students can match these cards to the correct letter of the
alphabet for practice in letter discrimination. If you write the animal type using
all lowercase letters, it also becomes an activity in matching capital letters to
lowercase, since the letter cards are capital letters and the animal type begins with a
lowercase letter. For some students, you might want to write the beginning letter in
a different color ink to aid in beginning letter discrimination. |
| Independent Reading |
The following books are appropriate
for Browsing Boxes and Independent Reading:
Level A (Fountas & Pinnell)
First Day of School (Wright)
My Book (Wright)
My Day (Wright)
The Weather Chart (Wright)
In Our Classroom (Rigby)
Going to School (Rigby)Level B (Fountas & Pinnell)
Fun at School (Wright)
I Can Read Anything (Wright)
I Get Ready for School (Wright)
Show and Tell (Rigby)
The Way I Go to School (Rigby)
Packing My Bag (Rigby)
The Play (Rigby) |
| Shared Writing/Predictable Charts |
During this activity each child
completes a predictable sentence that the teacher writes on a chart. Sentences may be
based on theme studies, or relate to other classroom activities. As the sentences are
written, the teacher points out conventions of print such as capital letters, leaving
spaces between words or punctuation. Make sure to add the student author's name at the end
of the sentence.
My name is _________. and I like____________.Days 1
& 2: The children dictate sentences and touch read them. Children are invited to
tell what they notice about various sentences and words.
Days 3 & 4: Play sentence builders. Choose several sentences and write one
word on a small sentence strip. Put the words in the sentence in order.
Day 5: The sentences are cut apart and given to each student author. The student
places the words in order, illustrates them and glues the words to the page. Create a
classbook for the children to read and reread during free reading.
|
| Interactive Writing |
During interactive
writing the teacher and class, or small group, work together to create written text. The
group agrees on what to write through discussion and negotiation. In order to produce the
written words, the students articulate the sounds with the teacher and then write the
letters and chunks of words that they hear. The teacher may fill in parts of words or
whole words, depending upon the group's stage of writing development. Interactive
writing is used for creating stories, writing poems, the retelling of favorite literature,
recipes, directions and lists. The pieces created by the students become a part of the
classroom environment and are used for reading and rereading. The class may use the pieces
for shared reading or may enjoy reading some independently.
Have the
children make up a name for themselves using an animal. For example, Mary Monkey or Fred
Fox. Make a list of student's names/animal names.
Another Interactive Writing Idea...
Let the children write the classroom rules to reinforce that we are a group and we work
together. Stress that the safety of the children is what they should think about when
writing these rules. To make them positive statements, rather than a lot of don'ts,
make a footprint on a large sheet of paper and label it "Our Feet Can" - the
children supply the rest (ex. be on the floor not on the furniture - walk in the
classroom, etc.). Then make a handprint paper labeled "Our Hands Can".
Continue listing rules. Stamp lip prints on another piece of paper labeled "Our
Mouths Can".
Have each child trace their hand print on colored paper and
glue them around the rule charts. Explain that this is the way we
"sign" a pledge to follow our rules, Hang these in our meeting area and
refer to them all year long. |
| Independent Writing |
| Have each child draw a picture of
their first day in kindergarten. Copy a piece of paper that says, "My First Day in
Kindergarten" and take a sentence of dictation from each child .
Journal Ideas
(Draw or write)
How did you get ready for school?
Tell me about your teacher.
What do you like to do in school?
|
Math Activities
" How Do We Get to School?"
Graph
Collect pictures of buses, cars, bicycles and people walking. Each child picks out
the mode of transportation they used to get to school. Make patterns of a bus, a foot and
a car. The children take turns putting their choice in the appropriate place on a
Pocket Chart or Graph. Count the number in each category. |
Calendar Math
Each day, count the days with the class. Count using your
voice in funny ways like soft or loud, high or low, squeaky or scary. Name the day of the
week (sing the Barney day of the week song), Talk about the month and the season. Help
them associate months and seasons to their birthday. |
Our Attendance Patterns
This is a great routine to help young children begin to
understand patterns and graphs.
On a large piece of construction paper
or poster board, draw a graph-like chart with the names of the children on the left and
the days of the week at the top. Title the chart "Our
Attendance".
When the children arrive in the morning have
a rubber stamp and an ink pad available. Let each child use the stamp to print a design in
the proper space after his or her name. For September you may have an apple stamp
and red and green ink pads. They can make their own patterns throughout the month.
|
Beginning of the Year
Addition
This activity can also be used for
taking attendance. You’will need a tree shape large enough to hold an apple
cutout for each student and some way to attach the apple to the tree (such as
velcro). Put each boy’s name on one color apple (red, yellow, green) and the
girls’ names on another color apple. (Use only two colors). When each
student arrives to school, it is their 'job' to get their apple and place it on a chart.
Place the apples in a horizontal line with boy apples on top and girl apples on the
bottom. (If the apples are small enough, you could use a pocket chart for this). Add
each row to find the day's attendance.
Example R= red apples (boys) Y= yellow apples (girls)
10 R R R R R R R R R R
+ 7 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
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17 |
| Math Pocket Chart Activity
Cut (5) 3x5 index
cards in half and program with the numbers 1 - 10. Using the Ellison machine
die-cuts or cutting your own, cut out 55 Back to School shapes - a girl, a boy, a
crayon, a crayon box, an apple and a school house.
Line the numbers up vertically in random order at the left edge of
the pocket chart, Have the students count out the correct number of shapes and
place them in the row beside the number. An alternate activity would be to place the
shapes in the rows and have the students count them and place the correct numbers in the
pocket chart. |
| Counting Apples
During the morning meetings/circle time/group time,
place a row of red and yellow apples in a pocket chart (Numbers may vary). One
student counts each row and writes the numeral in front of the row.
(They can choose the correct number card to put in the chart.) As a class, count:
How many in all? If starting this the first day of school, the teacher will
have to model this until the students begin to catch on. |
Center Ideas
My Classroom Scavenger Hunt
Before school begins, take pictures of various locations such as the bathroom, coat rack,
cubbies, art center, sink, etc. Post the pictures at the appropriate locations. Photocopy
the pictures (minimize them if your photocopy machine has the capacity to do so) and give
each child a copy. Let them go searching around the room to match their pictures. |
Match My Friends
Concentration Game
Use a digital camera to take a photo of each
child.
Print two of each child for a game of concentration. |
ABC Scavenger Hunt
Divide your class into small groups and assign them certain letters of the alphabet. They
need to search around the classroom for things that begin with that letter. |
Something's
Missing
Memory Game
Collect a bookbag, a pack of crayons, a bottle of
glue, a pair of scissors, and a pencil (and/or other school supply objects from your
classroom). Show the supplies to the children; then ask them to cover their eyes while you
remove one item from the group. Ask a volunteer to guess which item is missing; then
return that item to the group. Continue until each child has a turn to guess or until
interest wanes. Store the supplies in the bookbag; then put the bag in your games center
for small groups to play during center time. |
Art Activities
The Important Book
by Margaret Wise Brown.
Have each child trace a head and shoulders pattern and decorate it as themselves
with yarn hair. Complete the sentence frame,
I am important. I can _____. |
Make a Schultute
On a sheet of square poster board, decorate with crayons,
markers, lace doilies, buttons, glitter, etc. Roll into a cone shape and glue the
overlapping edges. Glue a wide strip of soft paper, such as tissue paper or crepe
paper, to the inside of the cone so that most of the paper sticks up above the cone. Fill
the cone with little goodies, such as pencils, erasers, stickers, candy, etc., then tie
the paper closed with a ribbon. |
| School Bus
Cut 4 small circles from black construction paper, or use
some big buttons to make bus wheels.
Cut a piece of yellow construction paper to cover the entire
outside of a pint sized milk carton. Glue or tape it around the milk carton. Using
markers or paint, draw the details on the bus (windows and even kids in the
windows, etc.)... Once you get it decorated the way you want it, attach the wheels. |
More Ideas
The Kissing Hand
This is always a favorite book for little ones who
are starting school. As an easy First Day of School Activity, print the following
poem for each child. Have them trace and color their handprint. Place a heart
sticker in the middle of their handprint. What a wonderful memory of school
beginnings!
Here's a special
thing to do
When I am scared of leaving you.
Hold my hand, then kiss it here.
The kiss will help to keep you near.
It will help me through my day,
So I can work and learn and play.
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Kissing Hand Cookies
With a hand shaped cookie cutter, cut out a hand for each
child using your favorite sugar cookie recipe. (Refrigerated cookie dough works
well, too!)
Have students add cinnamon hearts or chocolate kisses to pre-cut sugar cookie dough. Bake and send home as a First Day treat!
Variation: If you
don't have a hand shaped cookie cutter, you can use a plastic knife to cut around each
child's hand. |
Kissing Hand Fingerplay
Each day when I come to school
I tell someone good-bye;
(wave)
I get a kiss
(blow kiss)
or a nice warm hug
(hug yourself)
and I don't want to cry
(rub eyes)
I don't need to feel worried
or sad to see them go
(sad face)
because there is a special thing
that only I can know
(point to self)
I have a kiss that I can keep
(kiss palm of hand)
and use when I feel sad,
because I've got a "kissing hand"
(hold up hand)
that always makes me glad! |
School
A bus.
A flag.
A book.
A pencil.
A crayon.
A child.
A teacher.
School! |
This simple poem can be placed in a pocket chart,
with simple illustrations. This is a perfect piece for modeling how to use the pointers
when doing Read the Room, and it's great for teaching one-to-one correspondence. Give the
children books with this poem as the text. Have the children illustrate and put in
their individual book boxes.
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