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Book description: In this whimsical book, twenty-six young animals from an alligator named Adam to a zebra named Zach get ready for their first day of school while a teacher who is a border collie named Miss Bindergarten is hard at work preparing herself and her classroom for their arrival.

The book Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate is a fun way way to help prepare your child or students for school and to relieve any anxiety that they might be experiencing.

Lesson

Read Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten to children. Discuss with children the ways in which Miss Bindergarten prepares for the new year, such as putting together a bouquet of fall leaves and bringing in a goldfish, rolled-up posters, and shoeboxes full of surprises. If possible, show pictures to children of the way your classroom looked prior to getting it ready for the new school year. Have students describe the differences between the before and after.

Meanwhile, Miss Bindergarten's students are getting ready for school, too. For example, "Adam Krupp wakes up. Brenda Heath brushes her teeth. Christopher Beaker finds his sneaker." Discuss with children how they prepared for the first day of school. Perhaps they went shopping for new clothes and school supplies. Talk about the routine that they follow in the morning to get ready for school: get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush their teeth, walk to the bus stop, etc.

Other Activities

Word Wall
Create a word wall with children's names. After you have practiced the names on the word wall for a few days with children, play a game of Name BINGO with them using the names on the word wall. Provide each child with a BINGO card divided into nine squares. Have children copy a name from the word wall that they can read into each square. As you call out names from the word wall, also write the names on the board or a large sheet of chart paper. Have children cross (or use bingo daubers or edible markers like M&Ms or cereal) names off their BINGO card as you call them. When all the names on their card have been crossed off, have them yell out "BINGO!" Cross-reference their card with your list.

Name Cheers
Choose one person’s name and write it on the board or on a piece of chart paper. Then, lead children in a cheer pointing to each letter. For example,

M         Give me an M! (You say.) M! You got your M! You got your M! (Children say.)
I           Give me an I! (You say.) I! You got your I! You got your I! (Children say.)
A         Give an A! (You say.) A! You got you’re A! You got you’re A! (Children say.)
What’s that spell?
Mia!

Rainbow Names
Write child's name in large letters spaced out on a sheet of white paper. Talk about the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (gray-blue), violet). Then have child trace over the name template with the seven colors.

Tactile Names
Provide children with a variety of items such as beans, cereal, small candies, buttons, etc. Let them use the items to spell out their names. Allow them to spell freely or provide them with a template. Children can practice spelling their name using the template, or they can trace the letters with glue and add the objects to create a tactile name plate.

Writing Activity

Create a sentence strip for each character, such as "Adam Krupp wakes up." Cut the sentence strips into two parts, one part with the character's name and the other part with the rest of the sentence. Mix up the cards and let children match the names with the rhyming actions.

Rhyme Time
Point out to children that each character's name rhymes with something that they are doing, such as "Adam Krupp wakes up." Ask them to think of other words that rhyme with that character's name. For example, cup and pup rhyme with Krupp. Help children to create rhymes using their names. Create a class book of name rhymes.

Let children make name tags in their writing center.