Muriel--New to Kindergarten

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Muriel--New to Kindergarten
By Kim DeMaria

Being new to a grade is very overwhelming! The first few days of school I read stories related to school such as The Kissing Hand, Froggy's First Day at School, Friends (Helme Heine),Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten,
Chrysanthemum, and others.
I also read This is the Way We Go to School. We graph the various ways kids come to school--walker, busser, car, etc.
I sing the Wheels on the Bus with them. Then the kids are given a bus template and they draw on the wheels, and windows and kids inside.
I also sing this song with them called "I Like Kindergarten" sung to "100 Bottles of Beer on

the Wall". It goes like this:
"I like to go to kindergarten, I like to go each day, I like to __________(play, sing, etc.) in kindergarten, Hip-hip, hip-hip, horray! We sing a few verses and then I have them illustrate their favorite thing to do in kindergarten. I hang their pictures up on a bulletin board around the song chart. When I take it down, I bind it into a book and they love to read it!

The first few weeks my themes are "All About Me--family", "Friends", and "Apples". In math, I review concept words--over, under, above, below,left, right. Then I review shapes.

Important Note: Just because they are kindergartners, don't be too easy about establishing rules on the first day! Have them help you brainstorm rules and then you can prompt them for any essential ones they might have missed. I hang the rules up where they can see them and then I review the rules with them at circle every day for the first 3 weeks or more of school. They truly learn the rules this way.

Anyway, I hope all of this info helps. Let me know if you need anything else at any point during the year. kimdemaria@yahoo.com