One of my favorite activities to do on the first day is to read The Kissing Hand to my students and enjoy a tasty kissing hand cookie to celebrate making it through our first day of school. I feel like the first day of school is full of many different emotions for both the students and teachers. These can range from excitement to nervousness and from sadness to happiness. I taught for four years and without fail I would still get nervous the first day of school every single year. How can we not expect our little friends to not get nervous too?! Be sure to check out all of our back to school activities and resources!
Preschool and kindergarten students are full of emotion and do not always understand or know how to work through what they are feeling in the moment. The Kissing Hand is a great way to talk about how everyone is feeling about their first day of school and let them know that what they are feeling is completely normal and that everything will be okay.
I love this anchor chart that encourages a class discussion about your students’ feelings on the first day of school. After reading the book, students can complete the kissing hand poem craft and enjoy a kissing hand cookie.
What You Will Need for Kissing Hand Cookies:
- sugar cookie dough
- red food dye
- handprint cookie cutter
- heart fondant cutter
How to Make Kissing Hand Cookies:
1. Either make sugar cookies from scratch or purchase some sugar cookie dough from the grocery store. You will need to dye some of the cookie dough red. I grabbed a small handful of dough and added red food dye. The majority of the cookie dough will stay as is.
2. Using the hand cookie cutter, cut out a class set of cookies using the hand print. Place on cookie sheet. Using the heart fondant cutter, cut out red hearts and place on the center of the hand. There is no need to push the heart down.
3. Cook cookies according to the directions.
I hope that you and your students have a great first day of school and that yall enjoy this tasty kissing hand cookie too!
Can you not find a resource that you would LOVE to have for your classroom? Contact me and I would be happy to make it for you.
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I love this book and find that it does reassure preschoolers, too! I love the cookie idea and will use it! Thank you!