Preschool first day: 8 First Day of Preschool Activity Ideas for Teachers

8 First Day of Preschool Activity Ideas for Teachers

The first day of preschool is an exciting chance to welcome children to your center and start your upcoming year together on a positive note. When you’re planning the first day of preschool activities and crafts, you want them to be fun and engaging tasks that inspire children and support them get to know their teacher and peers.

Welcoming children on the first day of preschool

1. 1. Provide comfort for separation anxiety

The first day of preschool is a chance to care for children who may have anxiety about being separated from their families. Comfort them with a friendly demeanor and help them look forward to learning and spending time at preschool.

1. 2. Support children in building friendships

Use the first day of preschool activities as a prime opportunity to create connections between the children. Their activities can be fun to learn more about each other and lay the foundation for future friendships.

1. 3. Introduce the teacher(s) to the children

Children are undoubtedly curious about you as the newly-acquainted adult they’ll spend a lot of time with. So let children get to know you with an activity where you share a few facts about who you are and what they can expect from you as their teacher.

Read on for the first day of preschool ideas for teachers who want to welcome children into their classroom with activities that instruct and bring smiles!

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First day of preschool ideas for teachers

1. 1. Read a book about the first day of school

Utilize your read-aloud time to read a book themed around the first day of school. Books support everyone—including children—feel more connected and calm. The books below can assist children in easing any anxiety about their first day of preschool and inspire them to embrace what’s ahead.

• Little Critter: First Day of School
• Berenstain Bears Go to School
• Pete the Kitty’s First Day of Preschool
• Our Class is a Family
• Curious George’s First Day Of School
• Rosie Goes to Preschool

2.

Have a classroom tour or scavenger hunt

Help children adjust to their new learning environment by showing them around the classroom. Point out the most important supplies and the proper places to store their belongings. Then, make it a game by turning it into a scavenger hunt!

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1. 3. Play a “get to know the teacher” game

Make introducing yourself to preschoolers more memorable by playing a “get to know me” game. Children may not remember a list of facts, but they’ll perk up for a guessing game with funny options!

Create a list of fun facts about yourself and get the children to guess which one applies to you. For example, “My favorite color is blue, I used to have green hair, and I love cats more than any other animals!”

1. 4. Sticker name activity

Name-based activities are perfect for the first day of preschool. This one requires a little preparation, but it’s a simple way for children to use their creativity and begin to introduce themselves.

Write out or draw (with space in the letters) each child’s name large enough for them to put stickers on top of or inside of the letters. This activity not only gets names circulating among the children but helps children learn their names and letters.

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1. 5. Play “Our favorite things” activity

Building a giant list of favorite things is an exercise that everyone can participate in. First, write out categories, ask children what their favorite things are, and have the children draw their favorite things on a piece of paper. It doesn’t have to be legible—ask the children to explain what they drew as you walk around the room! Drawing has many benefits for young children, including improved hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

1. 6. Invite children to co-create classroom rules and procedures

Sharing the classroom rules and essential procedures with children is an integral part of the first day of preschool. Before the first day of school, write out a list of classroom rules and plan how you’ll guide children to participate in naming them. Their participation is also a great ice breaker that will help them get to know each other and remember the classroom rules.

You can even make a game out afterward to further help children retain the information. Quiz children on what to do in certain scenarios (how to apply the rules and the correct procedure) and reward them with a small prize for correct answers.

1. 7. Pass the ball

All you need for this activity is a ball made of a soft material and a predetermined “fun fact” for children to share. Children will slowly pass or gently toss a ball around. The child who catches it will share their name plus the fun fact (their favorite color, favorite animal, favorite food, etc.). 

1. 8. First-day self-portrait

A first day of preschool self-portrait is a great way to celebrate and makes a wonderful keepsake that parents will love. Ask children to draw a picture of themselves on the first day of preschool. You can use this free printable first day of school self-portrait worksheet or create your own template!

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Make the most of their first day

For a preschool teacher, few things bring more joy than welcoming a child to their first day of preschool. As you plan for their first day, remember that your excitement is contagious, and your smile can help put children and parents at ease. 

With the fun activities you plan, you’ll help children feel comfortable and adjust to their new environment. We hope you have a happy first day of preschool!

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5 Tips for New Routines and First-Day Jitters

Preschool is a “big step” forward and an exciting time for you and your little one! While stepping into preschool for the first time is filled with lots of wonderful new experiences for your child, for some kids, it can also be a little scary because it’s new. With this in mind, below are some tips that will help you establish new routines, calm first-day jitters, and prepare your new preschooler for the first day of PreK.

1. Before school begins, if you can, visit the classroom together at least once, preferably when other children and your child’s future teacher(s) are there. This will help familiarize him with his new school and learning environment, and help ease the “fear of the unknown.” If you can’t go into the school or classroom, drive or walk to the school and show your child where the school is located. You might also consider taking a walk around the neighborhood to familiarize your child with his new school surroundings.
2. Be sure to talk about school with enthusiasm at home in the days and weeks leading up to the first day, and as the first days and weeks unfold. Try to avoid the temptation to say things like “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” and instead, help calm her fears with information about what preschool will be like and how her days will unfold with new teachers and classmates.
3. Read books about going to preschool. There are so many wonderful stories about characters who go to school for the very first time. Use stories to help prompt lots of conversation about what preschool will be like, talk about the characters’ feelings about going to school for the first time, and share observations from the story about the preschool experience. Reading books and sharing stories about what you enjoyed about school will help your child mentally prepare for what his new experiences will be like.

Here are a few of my favorite books about starting school:

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes

How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?

The Kissing Hand

Clifford’s First School Day

First Day Jitters

4. Adjust routines early. Talk about the new school routine: what time you’ll be getting up and going to school, who your child’s teacher is and who will be in the classroom, what time the day ends, and who will be there to pick her up each day. Try getting your kids back into a routine at least a week ahead of time. Kids need time to adjust to new morning and bedtime routines. Make a chart that outlines the few things they will need to do each day before leaving for school: wake up, have a healthy breakfast, get dressed, wash up, brush their teeth, and pack their backpacks. Kids like to know what to expect, and they thrive on routines.

5. Plan a short goodbye ritual.  Before you drop your preschooler off on day one, plan out a ritual for saying goodbye so he knows what to expect. (The Kissing Hand mentioned above is a wonderful story that offers up a goodbye ritual I used every day with my boys when they were starting school. They loved it!) Children have a harder time with lingering goodbyes, so try to keep it personal, positive, and short. Be sure to also remind them that you (or your caregiver) will be there to pick them up every day.

What do you do to help your little one prepare for the first day of PreK? Share your ideas and experiences on the Scholastic Parents Facebook page, and let’s continue the conversation!

Russian from scratch for preschoolers: how to teach in the absence of methodology

A post that should have been written a long time ago: how to teach Russian to children who come to learn from scratch at preschool age. With adults, everything is clear: there is a RFL methodology, there are RFL textbooks, there are tests. And what to do with young children who have to learn Russian from scratch in the format of a foreign language? We do not have a clear, understandable, step-by-step methodology. Textbooks, in fact, too.

We have an hour a week + homework, at best, and a child who has learned to say hello on the way to class. I will tell you how I see the solution to this problem, and below I will give a comment by Ekaterina Protasova and a very useful quote from her training manual. nine0003

RCTs for toddlers?

What can we take from the RFL, a methodology that in its classical form is completely unsuitable for preschoolers?

1. Basic principles of teaching.

For example, information that the teacher must give a speech model at the beginning of the task or game. Not just “now we will play shop”, but speech models: what the child says, what the adult says. When a new teacher appears in our school who is not familiar with the RFL method, we have to constantly remind about speech models, check their presence at each lesson. We show the task and how it should be done, we pronounce what the child should say. nine0003

Reason for lack of progress #1 : teacher’s lack of speech patterns.

2. Grammar, speech formulas

In fact, the language does not consist of words, but of formulas. For example, “I want to buy” is a formula. We change the last word in the formula: I want to buy an apple, I want to buy milk, I want to buy fish, strawberries, yogurt, cheese… And we have a lot of offers. Language is a constructor, we change one word in the formula – a new statement appears, we add the “not” particle – a new statement appears. In the lesson plan and program, we first prescribe what speech formulas we give children, and only then – vocabulary. Formulas, phrases are more important than words. There is no point in learning words outside of formulas, there is no point in learning words out of context. nine0003

The reason for the lack of progress #2 : learning words, not formulas. Children often come to us who know a lot of words on topics: animals, fruits, vegetables, home, clothes. But they cannot speak even in the simplest sentences.

3. Grammar submission procedure

Grammar? Preschoolers? Babies? “It’s children”, what a grammar. We have two problems with our attitude to grammar: grammar is often understood as spelling (from the word “competently”?), grammar is often understood as theory (“the accusative case answers the questions “who, what”, in the feminine gender the ending changes to –u, -yu, exceptions are nouns with a soft sign at the end”). At the same time, grammar is just the structure of the language, its skeleton, without which we will again have a heap of words “by topic”. nine0003

If you are not familiar with the RFL methodology, you can simply open the RFL textbook for adults or, for example, the table of contents of Nina Vlasova’s RFL textbook for children. Look at the order in which the authors give the cases. This choice is not random, it is determined by the frequency of the use of cases in speech. At the same time, the authors do not take ALL the meanings of cases, but choose the most necessary ones at the elementary level.

For example, in the prepositional case these are the meanings:

– place: in a bag, on a sofa;

– transport: ride, swim, fly on something, etc.

– read about something, dream about something, talk about someone;

See the textbook below: we first learn to work with nouns, and only then we connect pronouns, etc.

Is it possible to avoid all this grammar, study of cases?

Yes, if you place the baby on Wednesday. For example, if you have a Russian-speaking kindergarten. Do we tell the child that
is learning the prepositional case? No, of course, the child just plays, performs tasks, learns to speak as part of the study of individual speech formulas. nine0003

Reason for no progress #3. There can be many reasons, actually. Cases should be automated in speech. So that the child, having said somehow “I want to buy milk”, hears himself and understands that something is not right, “they don’t say that”, you need to think more. This automation may be missing. Just “understanding the topic” is not enough. Just saying the right thing a few times is not enough.

Gradual, step-by-step development may be lacking.

There may not be enough games for practice, or there may not be enough games for using what has been learned in one’s own statement, in one’s speech. May lack spaced repetition of previously learned. nine0003

The cases in this paragraph are examples. There are a lot of other topics: gender, number, agreement of nouns and adjectives, etc., but the general approach remains the same.

Maybe not RCT?

Maybe not RCT, but not instead of RCT, but together with it. You can take benefits for monolingual children with speech disorders and developmental delays. These are grammar and lexical notebooks by Kosinova, materials for the development of coherent speech for children with OHP Arbekova, etc. You can partially take general developmental materials for babies. nine0003

But I have never seen an effective program for non-Russian-speaking children, built only on materials for monolinguals without additions and processing. It’s all about the difference in goals. Each manual solves its own tasks, and the authors of speech therapy manuals for monolinguals have completely different tasks than teachers and parents who want their child to learn to speak Russian.

Look for ideas in English for Toddlers. There are a lot of ideas there, I myself am subscribed to dozens of blogs of American kindergarten teachers and teachers of English as a second native. But the order of introducing grammar in Russian is still different. They are more about the design of the task, the presentation of the material, the options for games. nine0003

Reason for no progress #4 . A “patchwork quilt” of many manuals that helps to spend the lesson time, but does not solve specific problems. There are a lot of some printouts and cards, but there is no single system. If the system is not in the program, then systemic language learning will not work either.

Or maybe just play?

You can experiment. Go to the teaching community and ask how to teach Russian to kids who are learning it from scratch. I’m willing to argue, one of the first comments will be: “What lessons? Which programm? Toddlers learn by playing, just play. To the store, to the zoo, to the dolls, to the lotto. Here I liked this loto about dishes: link. And you can also sing songs and lead a round dance.

If you spend several hours with your child every day, then just communication and just playing will be a developing and learning environment. Download loto about dishes, memorize songs, take out a toy cash register and start playing. If you have an hour a week, then “just playing” you will just kill a lot of time without achieving anything. nine0003

Therefore, we return to the systematic approach: what grammar you practice, what formulas you can derive from it, what vocabulary you will need in the process, what games you can come up with to practice vocabulary and formulas. There are games, they are at the end of the chain. And they work for a specific task. And they do it! We connect songs as a warm-up at the beginning of the lesson, a round dance as a break, loto as an interval repetition of the previous topic (and do not forget to repeat not only the vocabulary, but the vocabulary inside the sentence, inside the formula). Look, everything came in handy, everything found a place inside the system. nine0003

Reason for no progress #5 . Well, you understand, I guess. Games are not built into the program, into the system. And in this case, you can play for 5 years, and the child will not speak even the most elementary Russian. And not because…

“We only have an hour a week”

I write about this very often and continue to write, because an hour a week also makes sense if you have a flexible program , a systematic approach, specific tasks for each lesson and tasks with games that solve these tasks. If you see the rhythms of the students and adapt to them. If you see the potential, the opportunity to step over to a new, more difficult stage, and take advantage of this opportunity. If you’re trying to figure out why it doesn’t work instead of explaining everything for an hour a week. If you are ready to temporarily take a problem student to individual training, this also often helps to catch up with the group. If both you and your parents understand that you are moving forward in small steps, and it cannot be otherwise with such a volume of work and such short classes. But you are moving on. nine0003

About homework

And finally, what to do with homework. Here is my option. If the child has Russian-speaking family members, they will help to repeat what was learned in the lesson, help to make a couple of worksheets. If there are no Russian speakers in the family, there are songs, baby educational videos on YouTube or short videos specially recorded by you for homework. And so on until the child learns to read. Once learned, we have the opportunity to give tasks for independent implementation. Copy-books, connect the word and the picture, worksheets with elementary tasks and vocabulary familiar to the child. The child grows up, the Russian progresses, homework becomes more difficult. nine0003

And the promised comment by Ekaterina Protasova , the author of textbooks and very useful manuals. And I recommend downloading a quote from her book “Methods of Teaching Preschoolers a Foreign Language”, thanks to the author for permission. From the training manual, I chose a fragment that concerns lesson planning, contains practical work techniques, ideas for classes and games.

Ekaterina Protasova

How we start from scratch

The younger the child, the easier it is for him to start communicating with an adult who speaks a different language. If only he had confidence in him. Therefore, you can start with some actions accompanied by words, for example, like on / hold – give, catch – throw, look – show. You can substitute various nouns: Here is a ball. On! Give me a ball. Here is the doll. On! Give me a doll. Look, it’s a window. Show the window. It is good that children already know these verbs when classes become more developed: they help to manage the situation. By the way, such a frequent, convenient and short word Na! usually completely disappears from adult RFL teaching. nine0003

In a group of children, we start with movements (according to the method of E.I. Negnevitskaya). The idea is that the center of every sentence is a verb. In addition, the form of the imperative mood (imperative) is more convenient for learning. We first turn to one toy and show how it executes commands, and then we transfer commands like fly to each child (or toy that he holds)! swim! jump! go! run! Here it is convenient to enter the names of animals: crocodile, giraffe, monkey, elephant … And in general, when there are a lot of movements, it is more fun. nine0003

Then you can change toys, change places, take turns choosing those who give commands (these can be toys or children). We have handy masks in Tabletop Adventures that can be colored in different colors. Later, when we combine a noun with an adjective, they will be useful to us in order to refer to different children, making signs meaningful: Pink elephant, fly! Green giraffe, jump! The names of the children also, of course, lengthen the phrases.

In a word, you need to combine everything with everything, but at the same time give a visual fairy-tale basis for performing an action. When the children have learned the singular, we introduce the plural: crocodiles, fly! giraffes, go! Children should distinguish when you are referring to a group of animals, and when to one animal (participants are grouped accordingly – toys or children). Pay attention to pronouncing the endings clearly. And there is no need to rush, let it be lively, but calm, otherwise the children will not understand whose turn it is. nine0003

After that, it is convenient to move on to transitive verbs: (to) wash, (to) touch, (to) stroke, (to) kiss, (to) smear. Show children already heard. Each action requires precise actions: circular movements, touches, movements in one direction, pointing with a hand (pointer, finger). Accordingly, toys and animals are combined. It is logical after that to attach the names of body parts, such items as soap, shampoo, sponge, washcloth, bath, towel, cream, and all of them can be of different colors and sizes, shampoo can be for hands, feet, hair, left knees, for the right shoulder… That’s a lot of long intense games. nine0003

Don’t forget to give your child the right to do and say whatever they want whenever they can. Support with quiet prompts so that it seems to him that he remembered it himself. If it is said with an error, repeat the same game action together with the child, without being distracted by clarifications, several times correctly. Involve all children in the game, adjusting the order and maintaining an accessible pace, without losing interest – including your own.

That’s all, write your questions in the comments. You can download a file with a fragment from the manual here. I will be glad if you tell about your experience and share ideas. Have a good studies, inquisitive students and interesting finds! nine0003

Journal “Preschool education” – 1/2023

Buy the journalBuy the electronic version of the journal 200 years since the birth.

SCIENCE

Childhood as a national resource of the country: initiatives, trends and problems . Part 1 (Sleptsova I.F., Ph.D., Moscow).

The problem of childhood is considered in the context of educational and social policy. The task of building a social state and the problem of saving the people of Russia is set, the solution of which lies primarily in the spiritual and ideological plane. One of the most important measures of demographic policy is the development of preschool education. The principle of “political child-centrism” provides for the solution of political and socio-economic issues from the perspective of childhood. The Decade of Childhood state program is aimed at building a child-preserving space. The ideology of the new educational policy is considered in the context of two cultures: “culture of utility” and “culture of dignity”. Educational and social policy depend on the goal-setting of the state. nine0180

Bullying. Overcoming and prevention in kindergarten St. Petersburg ). nine0003

The main criteria for the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs that can be taken as the basis for the prevention of bullying in kindergarten. Recommendations for overcoming this phenomenon by the teacher.

PRACTICE

Playing with a chicken (Antonova V.V., Aleksandrov, Vladimir region). Didactic playbook made by a teacher for children aged 3-5.

A set of games allows you to reinforce ideas about color, exercise counting, develop fine motor skills and spatial orientation. nine0180