• Access to the school website
• A book, scrapbook or album
• Glue
• Scissors
• Pencil / colouring pencils
• Print some images from the school website and stick them into your book to use as the basis for the story.
• You could visit the school and take some photos of your own (Please ensure they don’t include any children). Can you create a map of your journey to school?
• Encourage your child to write a story by using predictions, descriptions and their imagination.
Ask questions to help, such as: What will you do first? Can you tell me what the playground looks like? Describe the door/gate you’ll be going in. What are you looking forward to most?
• Get your child to label or draw pictures of their own.
This story book can be a piece of fiction (it can involve super heroes or unicorns) or can be a factual book, let your child lead with their imagination.
The activity involves lots of talking, predicting, describing and imagining, which all helps to support your child’s communication and language, as well as early writing skills.
• You could continue to use their book as a diary once school starts, or even continue with it as an important memory of their first year of school.
• Can they record what they enjoyed most about their first day? Can they draw a picture of their teacher, or their new friends? You can even stick in their first piece of art.