Advice From the Kindergarten Class

Summer vacation has arrived...finally! I just wanted to share one last end of the year activity.  After observing how excited my kiddos were to draw their maps of the first grade rooms I thought it might be fun for them to create a book for my incoming kindergartners.  We discussed how nervous they were about first grade...that is until they saw the rooms and talked to the teachers and first graders themselves. They had many of their questions answered and their nervousness subsided (at least for now!)  They were very excited about the possibility of helping the new kindergarten class feel less scared about coming to school! We began by drawing maps of our own classroom.

I love how this student concentrated on what was on the walls and labeled everything.  The map at the top of this post shows more of the objects in the room. I was amazed at how long (and quietly) they worked on their maps! Each one was very different and it seems that each student concentrated on his/her favorite parts of our room.  

The next day we began discussing "advice for new kindergartners."  We brainstormed a list of ideas that we felt were very important for the new kindergarten class to know about.  It was so cute to see how serious they were about this topic! They worked as a team to come up with many suggestions but here is a list of some of their favorites:

1. Be nice

2.  Don't be scared....school is fun!

3.  You will need to learn your popcorn words.

4. You will need to learn your abc's and 123's. 

5. Keep your teacher happy =)

6.  If you are nice you will make new friends.

7.  Clean up when it is time to.

Once we completed our list together I asked the kids to pick a few pieces of advice that they felt were the most important. They were to write their own page of advice to be included in a class book for next year's class.

"Don't be scared. It is fun. You have to learn your popcorn words. You will do good. You will probably be the best one."

I thought that this advice page was just so sweet! I love how encouraging she is to the new students!  

"Be nice. Know your popcorn words. Keep your teacher happy. Make sure you have fun!"

"Kindergarten is fun. Kindergarten is better than first grade."

I would say this little one may still be a bit nervous about going to first grade! I know they'll be just fine though...sniff, sniff.

I plan on either making this into a book to be available during our meet the teacher night or I may hang them in the hall for the parent's to read there. I haven't decided which would be the best just yet.  After "meet the teacher night" it will be the first student created book available in our reading center. I'm sure it will be one of their favorites next year! 

                                                              Mrs. M