preparing for kindergarten orientation

This week the Kindergarteners helped to prepare for Kindergarten Orientation. They eagerly chose to write signs and sort gifts during their academic choice. They reflected on the notes they received last year during their orientation. We talked about what kind of words would help a new kindergarten student during their transition. Many of the children shared that in our classroom you are safe and loved.

Their powerful words can be read in the notes they planned, wrote, and signed. The new kindergarteners already have a friend offering kind words and support at school. Their notes are decorated with illustrations inspired by our beloved book, Here We Are.

Colorful earths, hearts, and people holding hands; representing feelings of community and the notion that we are connected.

The children also helped to write the morning message for orientation and the book we read was written by them earlier in the year; How To Be in the Green Zone.

The children's voice and life could be heard and felt in all parts of our orientation. This is now my third time working with children to plan an orientation. It has been essential to share with them the idea that when we move on, we leave a piece of ourselves behind. As I updated some of the pictures in my slideshow for families and looked around our classroom this week, I realized that not only can you feel the life of the children that live here now, but you can feel the story of all of the children that have lived here.

I see this planning process as an opportunity for the current kindergarten students to develop important social and emotional skills, support their larger community, use their developing phonological skills to read and write to an authentic audience, and encourage a proactive approach to their own transition into something new; first grade!

Planning, writing, and reading the morning message to the new kindergarten students;

 

Dylan asked to help sort and fill orientation bags during academic choice. All 20 journals have the title, My Journal, printed by Sophie;

A small collection of notes written for the new kindergarten students. These encouraging and meaningful words were also shared with families, as I believe families have the same concerns as their child about starting something new;