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Early Care and Education program staff have the wonderful opportunity to reach out and connect with the area elementary schools, where the children we have been working with (some of us for five years if the child started in the program as an infant) by taking the children “bound for Kindergarten” on a field trip to the local elementary school.

While director of the Hyannis Child Care Center, Cape Cod, and later Head Teacher/Special Instructor for the University of Rhode Island Child Development Center, the staff and I would contact the local area schools where the children in our programs would most likely be attending and set up a time for the “4-5’s”( the children going to Kindergarten) to take a field trip to Kindergarten.

We would meet the principal of the school, take a tour of the building (highlighting the LONG hallways and various classrooms) and finally getting to visit the Kindergarten classroom. We would bring snack and conduct our regular “Meeting Time” activities. We would include the Kindergarten Class members in our songs, stories, and information sharing. The Kindergarten teacher and children would introduce themselves and share information about their school, their day, and the interesting things that they were doing in school.

Parents were informed of the field trip and kept informed about our adventures through follow up “Kindergarten Field Trip” activity charts, illustrations, photos we took of the trip, and Kindergarten Field Trip Bulletin Boards.

The purpose of this adventure was to support the beginnings of a smooth transition and build effective on-going communications with the schools, parents, and community. It started with the classroom teachers and the Kindergarten teacher building relationships and understanding the importance of setting the stage for later academic success by our building connections. The teachers knew and understood the elementary school settings and the Kindergarten teacher(s) knew and understood who and where the children were coming into the Kindergarten. It was a wonderful staff development initiative in supporting the staff’s understanding and reality of the children’s transitions and could promote the continuity of services for our programs and the public schools. Consider a Kindergarten Field Trip!

Contributed by William H. Strader, Director, Institute for Early Childhood Leadership & Professional Development, Johnson & Wales University

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