The Kissing Hand Preschool Activities

We absolutely LOVE starting off our year with THE KISSING HAND Preschool Activities! This is a story about a little raccoon, Chester, who separates from his mother for the very 1st time as he begins school. Sweet Chester has a bit of fear, but his Mommy shares a family secret that will make his nights at school seem as warm and cozy as his days at home – the Kissing Hand! She reminds him that she is always there by opening his tiny fingers, kissing the palm of his hand, and letting him know “Whenever you feel lonely and need a little loving from home, just press your hand to your cheek and think, ‘Mommy loves you. Mommy loves you.’” We capture this tender moment with a handprint project for them to remember this special day forever.

Chester becomes a loved character in our classroom! We replicate him with shapes and build our very own Chester, using the TLC (Teaching Little Children) Lesson Process:

“The TLC directed art lessons are designed to help the children develop their self-confidence and creative ability. The children are given only squares and rectangles to create pictures. The children learn to cut circles, ovals, and triangles from squares and rectangles. They learn how things fit together, can be transformed, and can be taken apart. Once they have an understanding of how shapes work they become creative. All of the children begin with the same materials and follow the same directions, but the results are individual and no two creations look alike.”

The TLC directed art lessons help children:

• Learn to Follow Oral and Visual Directions
• Acquire an Understanding of How Shapes Work
• Develop Fine-Motor Skills
• Strengthen Eye-Hand Coordination
• Learn Color and Shape Recognition
• Develop an Awareness of Spatial Relationships
• Learn to Work Individually and Independently

“The TLC Lessons are created for kindergartners to teach the kindergarten curriculum. However, they have been successfully used in classes from preschool to 3rd grade as well as in ESL and special education classes.” © 2014 – TLC Lessons

We also practice reading with these adorable sentence strips…

and then move into small-group for our individual books from Kinderbabies .

We love talking about feelings and capture them!

Once in a while, we get kiddos who struggle with separating. This is completely normal but it can be so much harder on the parents than the child. We just give our gentle reminder…

We celebrate Chester and our feelings with LOVE NOTES from our families! This is such a special time as we read these to each child individually and glue this to their handprint (pictured above) to be saved and remembered forever!

We hope this post can help inspire you to bring The Kissing Hand theme into your classroom or learning wonderland! Please post below how you celebrate feelings and your special start to school!