Book: The Kissing Hand

There are always a few kids that will cry on the first day of school. To help ease the transition from home to school I read the "Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn. In this clever adoreable story, the little racoon is afraid to go to school. His mother kisses his hand to remind him that she is always with him. As homework I have the students go home retell the story and ask their mom (any care giver) to kiss their hand. The next day they come in very excited and are eager to share their kissing hand. When I see a student ready to cry I remind them of their kissing hand. Good Luck!!

I have an open house before school starts. I give out handbook, etc. and a take home project for The Kissing Hand. I give them a piece of construction paper to trace their hand on, and a pre-printed piece of white paper with some sort of cute border around it. With their family, they complete the project - trace hand on construction paper, cut it out and glue in the center of white paper, find a family picture and attach it to their project. These will be hung up on the first day of school on a bulletin board. I read them the book on the first day and send home a heart sticker and a note telling parents to put the sticker on their child's hand and then kiss it. When they come to school the next day, if the sticker is still on their hand they can put it to their handprint in bulletin board. Children love this display and take comfort in having a family photo in their room.

I've found the "Kissing Hand" theme helps to start discussion about everyone's nervous feelings about starting the new school year (including mine). As we do the related activities and talk about a kiss from home on our hand, those who are nervous can express their feelings, we record and validate them, then (most importantly) we move on to more fun stuff. I tell them some of the great things planned for tomorrow. Most of my first day criers are eager to return the next day. The one who continues needs a sincere hug from me (and for mom to let go) and then we get on with our day, and they join us when they "pull themselves together". I have only had one child in 20 years who cried after day 2.

Make a racoon paper bag puppet as a follow up activity. The kids put a heart sticker on the raccoon's hand. You can also give each child a heart sticker/stamp for their hand when they leave. I usually do this the first day of school, but it would be great project to calm "leaving mom" jitters before school even gets started.

The story "Kissing Hand" is a wonderful story to read to young students the first day of school. This year I am going to make cookies to serve after the story (poor children!!!). I was in Kohl's and found a perfect cookie cutter for around $4.00. It is the shape of a small hand with a heart in the middle.

I love this book. At our open house on the first day of school I read the story and I have the parents take home a half a sheet of salmon colored paper. The mother draws her hand on one side then puts lipstick on and kisses the middle of the hand. The father draws his hand on the other side and he draws a heart and colors it red. I laminated the pages and make it into a class book. You would not believe how many times the children look for their parents hands. Hope you will enjoy this idea as much as I have.

The first day I read The Kissing Hand and we all traced our hand, decorated it and then glued a hershey kiss in the middle to take home to our mothers. They loved it! We also did some journal writing with pictures, some easy math centers with puzzles and introduction of how to use the manipulatives (each table had a tub and every 10 or 15 minutes we'd switch tables). First graders LOVE puzzles. We had a small snack and decorated name plates.Also the first day we took a tour of the school which was fun, helped them orient themselves (our school was huge) and also good practice for walking in a line.

We make class books using the students' names. I use a read aloud book to kick off whatever class book we are doing. We did The Kissing Hand and I had the students make a hand print on paper. I used the sentence: I see _______'s kissing hand.

For Brown Bear Brown Bear we made the book Children, Children, Who Do you See? I have the students pictures on the pages with the words ___________, _____________, who do you see? I see __________ looking at me.

I am now making a book titled The Apples of Mrs. Chartier's Eye. I have a students picture inside an apple on each page. The leaf is velcroed with the student's name. The children have to match the names to the pictures in the book. After we read the book as a class, I let the children take it home to share with their parents. The parents can write a comment about the book back to the class. They really get excited about taking the book home and it's extra practice.

After we read The Kissing Hand, my students made racoon puppets out of paper bags.

First, I used a permanent marker to draw some basic parts on white paper. I drew 2 eyes (with a dark, filled in circle for the classic racoon eyes) a nose, 2 arms, and 2 ears.

Then I photocopies them on white cardstock. The kids cut them out and I assisted with gluing. All the kids had wonderful racoons when they were done. The kids LOVED it and they had something really cute to bring home the first day.

Make a model and tell the kids that it is shy to come out--but that it whispers to you that it will come out if they only have out their scissors and glue. They love to finally see the racoon as it comes out.

I found nine piece blank puzzles on the internet at a reasonable price. I have heard that you can find them at craft stores. Basically, I am going to have the kids put their handprint on the puzzle and then I will put a heart sticker in the palm of their hand (it goes with the story The Kissing Hand). This is a present for them to give to their parents. A fun keepsake.

I have used the story THE KISSING HAND and it"s sequel A POCKETFUL OF KISSES for the last three years during the first two days of school. The children really love it because they get to dip their hands in large inkpads to send their handprints home to their parents (great for safety records) and they put a heart sticker in the middle. They also get a Hershey's kiss from me at the end of the story because I want them to know that I also love and accept them as their classroom teacher.