Road Maps

Wouldn't we all love to have a road map to prepare us for the next big transition in our lives? That’s what our TK students have tried to create for preschoolers who are about to make the big leap to TK and kindergarten. They worked as a group to make an enticing hand-drawn map of the kindergarten yard. Last Friday the entire Room 7 class visited the shared Rooms 1 and 2 yard and unfurled a giant scroll, featuring their artistic renderings of fun places to play on their yard.

“These are the monkey bars,” a five-year-old indicated, pointing to one of the colorful drawings. Another child added, “Those are bushes where you can play hide-and-seek.” 

Talking about exciting features of the kindergarten yard is just one of a variety of ways both Room 7 and 8 students are reaching out to preschoolers. Their teachers have empowered them to become “welcomers” to preschoolers who may be nervous about the next step. Over the next weeks, they will visit all the preschool classrooms, singing songs, demonstrating beginning reading, and displaying their cartography skills. 

They have also started to talk about things they are proud of learning, and their accomplishments aren’t always what one might expect. In a discussion in Room 2 this week, TK and kindergarten students offered surprising insights into their social-emotional growth. One girl said, “We learned tools to control our bodies so we wouldn’t have to go to the calm corner as much.” A boy added, “We learned to bounce back.” 

A year ago, these visiting five- and six-year-olds were preschool students themselves, expressing typical anxieties about leaving preschool like, “How will my mom find me in kindergarten?” ”What if I don’t find a friend?” Now they have the chance to go back to their preschool classes and have a sense of how much they have grown. Most importantly, they are gaining empathy and learning how to care for younger children. 

They are also making connections. Since most of the Room 7 children will move into Room 8 next year, they can play an active role in helping new children coming to either room acclimatize to the new setting. 

The process of discussing kindergarten also helps preschoolers who are moving to other schools, and they will benefit from visiting the campuses. We hope they bring the nurturing experiences they’ve had at our school with them. 

We want all our students to learn to become welcomers, wherever they go, as an important way of bringing more caring into the world.