| The active role that schools take when children are transitioning, and even before the transition begins, is essential. One recommended practice is contact between kindergartens and preschools (Smolkin, 1999). Kindergarten teachers should visit the preschools their students will be coming from in order to understand the curriculum and to get to know their future students through interactions with them and through preschool teachers’ reports. Kindergarten teachers can then begin planning for individual students before they enter their classrooms, helping to ease the transition (NEGP, 1998b). Another way to build connections between preschool and kindergartens is by arranging for preschool children to visit the kindergartens they will be attending. If children know what to expect, they might feel less anxiety early in kindergarten. The effectiveness of this practice was demonstrated by the Head Start Transition Project (Kagan & Neuman, 1998, details below). |
