Transitions are the moves children and young people make from home to nursery, from stage to stage and through Curriculum for Excellence levels. Transitions are part of everyone’s life.
When transitions work well they help children and young people to develop confidence and acquire skills to manage future changes in their lives.
The vast majority of children and young people look forward to moving on in learning and in life. For some children transitions can be challenging and support from parents and staff at school can help the transitions go more smoothly.
Some children may need particular help perhaps including some other agencies to ensure that they feel confident about the transitions. It helps children at all transitions if staff and parents:
- Talk with them about what is going to happen
- Encourage them to talk about any concerns or anxieties
- Listen carefully to their concerns and consider sharing them with other relevant people
- Help them become familiar with the new setting and what will be expected of them.
Here, we have provided a 4 week block of activities that you can do at home to help prepare your child for starting Primary 1.
The Paper Dolls
Week 1
Watch the story
Watch the story, pause when your child would like to talk about what is happening in the story or pictures. Pause when the boy cuts up the dolls. What would children like to happen next?
Join in
When children become familiar with the story they could join in as you watch it again with the paper dolls’ song and the words of the dinosaur, tiger and crocodile eg ‘I’m coming to crunch you!’
Talk about the story
Talk about the different dolls and the names for them, what might each of them be like?
Can you spot the butterfly slide on every page?
Talk about the boy cutting the dolls up. Why might another child (boy or girl) do something like that?
Talk about how the little girl might have felt at different points in the story
Share memories; what special things (toys, places, or people) do children remember or which nice things would they like to remember when they grow up? Talk about your own childhood memories. Did an adult teach you to make something special?
Week 2
Make paper dolls
Help your child make a chain of paper dolls. You could follow the instructions on the video link or webpage or use the pictures in the story to guide you so that some dolls are wearing trousers and some dresses. Your child could then decorate and name them, making sure each one is special and different.
Week 3
Make your own story
Children could make up a story with their own paper dolls – perhaps their dolls will be in danger from a scary animal attack. You could play the story together using a toy or improvised glove puppet (oven glove perhaps?!) for the imminent danger to the dolls.
Week 4
Make a memory box
Using a shoe box children can put in a few special things, objects, photographs and drawings. They could decorate the box to make it look special with wrapping paper and label it ‘my memory box’. Encourage your child to tell another member of the family about their memory box and what is inside. This would be an opportunity for older family members to share memories with your child too.
We hope you enjoy taking part in our transition project, please share your experiences by uploading your pictures to Twitter.
https://twitter.com/StFrancis_PS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
