Welcome to the kindergarten: what to do the first days of school with children.

Little tricks to survive the first days of school.

The time of integration is one of the most delicate and demanding of the school year, for children, for their parents and not least for teachers.

The first days of school are decisive for many reasons: they leave a mark on the children’s perception, give a direction to the relationship with parents and trace what will be the particular characteristics of the group that is being formed.

The teacher in this whole process has the task and I would say the power, to carry out a directing action.

Let’s see together what things in particular, pay attention, to survive the first days of school and possibly have fun.

The first day of school in a kindergarten section.

In the kindergarten ecosystem, on the first day of school, the main goal for everyone is to really survive.

Boys and girls have to survive the detachment and it is not easy because everyone comes loaded with expectations and anxieties of the adults around them. Parents think about the future school career of their children while the first natural thought of children is: but will they come back to take me???

As the teachers well know, this thought is so all-encompassing that when the separation anxiety rises, there are no words that can explain to the little ones that they, mom and dad always come back to pick up their children.

It makes you smile but it is so and in front of this, everything seems inadequate: games, activities, companions, it seems that nothing can console or at least soothe, but in reality it is not so.

The teacher survives the first day of school, the cries, demands and reception of many children and parents, just as much as he can manage these emotions.

The balance is found by offering activities that manage to engage the children, combining hands and belly, heart and mind, without making the operational component prevail over the emotional sphere.

On the first day and sometimes, even in the following days, it does not matter to have created a successful product, it is not important to take home a job or a memory, in my opinion what matters is that the time spent together leaves a positive trace inside each.

Easy to say and less to do: the ball escapes in a moment and only with great care and attention is possible to maintain the focus on well-being.

To succeed, however, is fundamental and the future development of the group over time will depend on it. My advice is to devote time, resources and energy to the care of the relationship, rather than to structuring activities.

What to do the first week at kindergarten.

There are some simple proposals that allow us to keep the children engaged and that are flexible enough to also allow us to keep an eye on the most important emotional aspects.

Use puppets as supplementary background.

The first days of school can be very helpful, present as a playmate and path a puppet or a simple puppet.

This proposal can be made in the form of an integrative background, a kind of thread that links over time different proposals and activities, or as a simple support for narratives and games.

The puppet becomes, in the first case, the companion who presents us with situations, people, activities, discoveries and accompanies us through time; In the latter case, it promotes children’s ability to listen and concentrate and simply allows them to distract their attention from the dominant thought of detachment.

In concrete the puppet allows us to:

Introduce the children by doing a small interview: what is your name, how old you are, what is your favorite game and so on.
Smiling, playing funny or tender roles: for example make him cry, helps to dedramatize or make him fall or do funny things, help us laugh at ourselves and relieve tension.
Tell fairy tales or stories in a more incisive and engaging way.

Games to know the names of the partners.

There are many variations on the theme of name games, to choose from.

All these games are important because they help to structure moments of dialogue and tranquility in which everyone can find space. Not all children will get involved, especially the little ones are sometimes reluctant, but even just participating by listening is already a great result.

Here are some variations:

The puppet touches the children’s heads and the touched child says, from time to time his own name, favorite food, color, age, friend of the heart and so on.
With a ball, in a circle, the child holding the ball says his name. On the second round, he says the name of a friend to whom he will pass the ball. In the third round he says the name of the two companions that he has near. The fourth one thing he likes...

Activity to repeat the names of the partners, with tennis balls and color.

After learning the names of the companions, to consolidate their knowledge, you can move on to this fun activity.

Prepare a large sheet of wrapping paper, lay it on the table and hold it with adhesive tape.

The boys and girls will position themselves around the table and let roll a tennis ball, first in the tempera and then towards a companion whose name they will have to repeat. Who receives the ball then diverts it to another partner, while the color leaves a trace on the sheet.

Do not worry if some of the children will miss the pronunciation of the names, the very fact of working together on a common theme is already important and begins to structure, gradually, the team spirit.

tracce di colore rosa, lasciate da pallina da tennis, sporca di tempera, che rotola.

The ball game to learn names and create bonds.

The ball game is useful to repeat and consolidate the knowledge of names by the little ones, but it is also pleasant for older children, already aware of the value of friendships and relationships that are built at school.

In the simplest version you put into play a ball of colored wool of good size.

The ball will pass from child to child, rolling and putting in the center of each time the name of who throws or who receives, the favorite dish, the character, color, fairy tale, game and so on.

Each child who will receive the ball of yarn will hold the wool between his fingers, so that the progress of the game creates an increasingly complex and complex interlacing, as complex are the bonds that are created in a kindergarten section.

A variation may be that, instead of holding the wool thread in your hands, you make it for example around the wrist or ankle of each child who receives the ball. In the end, unraveling the threads will be the most fun part.

Explore the environments of the kindergarten with the ball game.

Another interesting activity, the first days of school, is to explore the different environments of the school in favor of younger children who still do not know them.

Exploration can be done in different ways, but with the ball game, everything takes the form of a treasure hunt that can be expanded and enriched by various elements.

The care of the setting involves the placement of the wire in the different environments, to do so it is necessary to obtain a ball of yarn long enough and resistant, which can be deployed in various spaces and anchored to a point of the same environment: a handle, a radiator, a piece of furniture or something.

Once you have structured the entire route, without showing it to the children, you can leave the section and go to discover the spaces, gradually rewinding the ball of yarn and retrace the journey together.

As the ball rolls back, as if to get out of a maze, it will be important to keep high the expectation and the sense of anticipation for the discoveries that are being made: narrating as if you were in a fairy tale or, making find in each room a small treasure to take in section.

This will help us, at the end of the game, to rework together the path and things seen and discovered.

This activity in its simplicity, helps to involve even older children who already know and live for a long time the spaces of their school, creating surprise and expectation.

Treasure hunt with the ball to discover the words of friendship.

Another activity to be carried out with the ball of yarn, similar to the previous one, but with greater intentionality, is to always create a path/ maze, with the yarn of the ball of yarn but that leads us, this time, to discover the words of friendship.

This activity for the reception at the kindergarten is useful because it allows us to introduce in a fun way, the other proposal that usually repeats every year in the first days of school, which is the discovery and sharing of the main rules of the school.

To propose it will be enough to recreate the maze with the wool thread, maybe in an unusual space like the garden and let the children find, attached to the thread but hidden, the words of friendship, printed on special cards: thank you, please, sorry, permission... and so on.

Everyone will focus attention on the words they want to pass as important and once discovered and collected all the words, we will go to comment and study them together, telling about that time...

That time I said thank you...
That time I was thanked...
That time I got in a fight and...
That time I apologized...

With simplicity you will be able to create a useful track, to structure in a natural and interesting way, a guided conversation on the theme of respect for oneself and others.