A friend of mine recently sent me a conversation that she happened to come across online. The conversation started with “What book is everyone planning to read on the first day of school?”
The answer was unanimous, “We always read the Kissing Hand book” And most of those comments were followed up with cute ideas that go along with the story.
No, no, no, and no.
As I read through the comments and suggestions, I just kept shaking my head and saying, “No, no, no, and no.” This book is too long for young children to sit through and it magnifies the emotions that come with knowing that mommy is gone. Those two reasons alone are reason enough to NOT read this book or others like it.
Find something fun and exciting.
I get it. It seems like you should read a story about being separated from mom or that you should read a story that is about going back to school. However, if you really want to get your students excited about being in your preschool or Pre-K classroom instead of feeling sad about leaving mom, then focus on what your students will find fun, funny, interesting, exciting.
Why not dive into a topic that your children will find magical, intriguing, or interesting. How about a topic that the children will want to learn more about? Why not find a book that is a little bit shorter, filled with great illustrations, and has a fun and engaging story that you can easily read-aloud to your littles? Why not find a book that will inspire the children to go home at the end of the day and say, “Mommy! We read a book about a dinosaur, donut, robot, lion” or any other topic that young children love?
Capture Attention and Imagination
When it comes to the first day or even the first week of school, the books or activities you choose will either leave your student’s sad, bored, and wanting mommy or they will capture imagination and attention and get them excited about what other fun things they will do that day.
Get Young Children Excited About Being In Your Classroom
Throughout the Back to School Discover Conference, you will discover the kinds of books and ideas that capture student imagination and attention and then leads them towards being excited about being in your classroom. Let’s make the first day of preschool fun for our littles.
I always read Todd Parr’s “The Underwear Book”. All children can relate to underwear. It’s very silly, and the children end up begging me to read it over and over throughout the year. I purchase a copy of the book for each of them for an end of the year gift.
I could not agree with your post more. I love to use my first day to help the students feel connected to their new space, feel empowered by their new space and feel respected above all. While this does mean acknowledging their feelings about separation it also means helping build a relationship with their new friends, their new space and with me. I like to read a book that is about me and their classroom where they learn about who I am as a person and all the incredible things we plan to do in our new space. It familiarized they with me and all the things in our room, which feels less intimating once the students get to know us all better.
Very true. I never really thought about it from that perspective. I like it!
I agree wholeheartedly! I was team teaching one year with another teacher who was adamant about reading this book with mommies /daddies and their child sitting on their lap…
Mommy was supposed to leave after kissing their child’s hand and the child was to kiss mommy‘s hand. Kids were antsy 😣
The story was too long.
Wow! That sounds like a really risky idea!
Thank you for your insight on how to approach welcoming children to the classroom on the first day of school. I completely agree, the Kissing hand is not the best choice. It reminds little ones of missing mommy and distracts them from feeling positive and happy at that first important gathering in the classroom. Thank you for providing encouragement and better
ideas to welcome students on their first day!🙂
Agree!!!! The Kissing Hand can be read by parents before school starts…. its day books should be funny and thought provoking! I like
What Color are Your Underwear and Otter Goes to School.
Yes! I totally agree!
For my first few years of teaching I was told that “The Kissing Hand” was the perfect book for first day of school. But, as the years went by, I started asking myself “Why are the children so fidgety when I read this book? Is this an indication of what my class will be like all year?” Then I figured it out. This book is not developmentally appropriate for 4-yr-olds’s first day! Way too wordy!
Thanks for your post!
Yes! Cute story, but can be super fear-instilling for some children. Also very wordy. Books like that are for assuring children who are already expressing those feelings that they are not alone in those thoughts.
One of my mentors early in my career told me that she always reads a silly book about animals/vegetables/etc. in underwear. Break the ice, be silly, leave them wanting more!
I totally agree! I love to read Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. The kids love it. We sing the song. I reread it and they beg for it. They are so excited to know that I have another Pete the Cat story for the next day.
I absolutely agree with you, Deborah! I tend to stick to repetitive books the first few weeks of school, although the Mercer Mayer “Monster” books (Alligator Under the Bed & Something In My Closet) are runaway hits, too. But, the book I ALWAYS read on the first day is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” I use the format of the book to create a “Rainbow Hill, What Do You See?” that has a photo of every child and the teachers, too. Once the book is read at school, each child gets an opportunity to take it home to share with family. It is a great way for children to become more familiar with the names of friends. Plus it is an opportunity to talk about things we do at school with family members who may not get to see us during the school day since the photos are of the students playing around our classroom. Once the book comes back to school, I find that it is one of the first books pulled off the shelf to read again, and again, and again. Thank you for posting!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea! Thank you for sharing.
THANK YOU!!!!!! I didn’t NOT like it when the kindergarten teacher read it to my kindergarteners and I will never ever read it to my preschoolers!!!
Thanks for your blog, totally supportive and informative .
I agree! Most of the teachers at my school will read “The Kissing Hand” . I stopped reading it about 5-6 years ago. I read (sing) Pete the Cat “Rocking In My School Shoes”. I read “The Hungry Caterpillar with a stuffed caterpillar on my shoulder. I try to find fun books that don’t dwell on missing mama. So far it works much better than the other types of books.
I totally agree too. Too many words in “The Kissing Hand” and I do not want to remind my little friends that they are missing Mommy or Daddy. One of my favorite kick off books is “Pete the Cat – Rockin’ in my New School Shoes”. I also make a book of my students in their new school shoes that gets sent home each week with a different family so that all can know who is in the class. My friends love to answer “Guess who” when looking at the page of someone’s shoes.
I agree as well….you need to read something exciting and really funny, as well as short. Like “I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More” and have paint with paintbrush available for the children to explore. Something totally different than the norm so the Kiddos can’t wait to come back again tomorrow.
I totally agree! This book is way too long for my 3 year olds, and honestly, not really appropriate in terms of content. I want my students to be happy, not teary eyed at the thought of that last kiss. I usually read Mouse’s First Day of School – a fun book to introduce some of the things our kids will see/do through the eyes of a little mouse. And to make it more fun, it turns into an interactive exercise where we guess just what the mouse sees, and find the equivalent in our room.
I love reading Cookie’s Week on the first day. Simple text, great illustrations, and the word “toilet.” Gets my littles laughing every time. Plus, Cookie had some mishaps, but he kept on going until rest time. Totally relatable.
I like reading “Maisy Goes to Preschool” to my 3’s class on the first day. Each time I turn the page, a child passes our ‘stuffed Maisy’ to the next child in the circle to hold.
In my 2’s class, I read the very simple story by Helen Lester called “Lin’s Backpack.” Then we let each kiddo show his/her backpack (they’re always so excited to do this), and we put our backpacks on and jump like Lin did at the end of the story.🎒😊
Completely agreed, instead of reinforcing the feelings of separation anxiety and constantly reminding kids the that mommy is not there it’s better to get their attention diverted to something interesting and fun n what they can look up to n be excited about and go back home to share with their mommies and actually look forward to getting back to school the following days !
A lovely idea but we usually read a story about the exiting thing that a child when through one the first day of school and finding new friend new toys and sharing them with his friends then going back home and telling his parent about his first day at school
Somehow I love reading David goes to school and my kids have always loved it 😁
I read Pete the Cat and my White Shoes
Thank you!!! It helps to know that there are so many other teachers on the same page! I LOVE reading something funny & exciting to my kids on their first day. We “ease” into our school year — the first day is 1 only an hour with 1/2 the class, the second day is an hour with the whole class and the third day is the whole session with the whole class, so I typically read the same book 3 times! I’ve read Brown Bear, Pete The Cat, I Can Only Draw Worms, We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, Little Bee, Don’t Let The Pigeon Ride The Bus are just a few I’ve done on the first – third day.
I read Corduroy to my pre-k kids. Our stuffed Corduroy is missing one of his buttons too. So we go out in the sandbox and hunt for buttons. When we find the one that matches, I sew it on.
The kids have a little collection of buttons to take home on the 1st day (different shapes and colors for sorting and counting).
I too am one of those teacher who read “The Kissing Hand,” to my preschoolers on the first day. Last year I changed it up and read “Pete the Cat, Walking in my School Shoes!” The 3 year old’s loved this book and asked me to read it throughout the entire school year (along with some of Pete the Cat other books). Thank you for sharing this post.
I like to read Pete the Cat;My four groovy buttons. The children(3 & 4 yr. old) loved singing along with Pete. I also introduced other Pete the Cat books. The children, after hearing the stories a few times, were able to tell them to each other just by looking at the pictures. Thanks for sharing this post.