Kindergarten Transitions That Work

The first weeks are when we gather information about our new children and their families, begin to form our relationships and together develop our classroom community. 

As the children enter into the classroom or move from one activity to another I like to focus on flow by keeping routines and frameworks simple, repetitive and build independence with the children. A colleague asked me the other day how do I like to begin my morning and honestly while I have many ideas I know that the children and I will figure that out. Here are some morning transitions which have worked in the past, remembering that we will be outdoors and transitioning into the room mid morning.

I like to prepare the room before the children arrive so the provocations or invitations will be set up for the children. I have included a list below of many table task transitions that have been successful in the past. Last spring we did two mornings of story play, a math play and Read Aloud. Earlier in the year we did the Look Closely Program and Story Play. The fifth morning we always invite our families for family reading.

There are literally dozens of ideas. Once you teach the framework, including how to use the tools and tidy up, this becomes a familiar and highly successful transition. Her are a few successes from last year. I have included links to older posts if you wish more information.

Look Closely - small squares paper, black sharpies, something like a small shell, flowers, wood... for the children to sketch.

Story Play - small collections of objects which lend themselves to stories like bark, forest animals, fabric, tree cookies

Pattern Investigation - small collections of objects, felt squares

Read with a Friend - pillows, small rugs, baskets of books around the room

Water Colour - white shells, 2-3 jars of liquid water colour paper, brushes, water jar

Collage - squares or circles of cardboard, small collage collections in muffin tins, white glue

Nature Painting- a long branch with jars of similar coloured paint i.e. white, light pink, darker pink. On the second day the branch would be put out again with muffin tins of tiny collage ie. mini pom pom, sequins, small buttons, ribbon, white glue. The collage materials could be also in the similar shades as the paint.

Beading - rimmed cookie sheets, ribbon, pipe cleaners, thick twine, variety of beads (I like to have them hang on tree branches so I drilled holes in a stump and stuck branches in it)

Thanks for stopping by