These simple ideas will help you help those just starting at your nursery to settle in, says Jude Harries…
Encourage the children to self-register when they arrive at the setting. Can they find their own photograph or picture to stick onto a circular “Welcome World” board or peg onto a washing line?
Magnetic photos of the children are also fun for children to use and sort into “here” and “away” groups on a metal board.
Encourage them to use the “Welcome World” to check if their friends have already arrived, so they feel more confident about the day ahead.
Invite children to sit down together using a song: Come and sit down on the carpet/in a circle (x3) / Let’s all sit together. (Tune: “What shall we do with the drunken sailor?”) If the children have regular places to sit, help them find them.
Try a singing register. Use the two “cuckoo” notes, G and E, and sing: Hello [child’s name], hello [child’s name], hello [child’s name] / Welcome to school today. (Tune: “It’s raining, it’s pouring”)
Can children play the two notes on chime bars or a xylophone for each “hello”?
Invite the children to sit in a circle. If some find this tricky at first, let them watch from a safe distance. Pass a pie dish around the circle as you sing these words using the “cuckoo” notes: I, I, me oh my, how I love my welcome pie.
Whoever has the pie at the end can choose a new flavour for it, e.g. apple, chocolate or even spiders! Alternatively, write the children’s names on small pieces of paper and put them in the dish. Choose a name, welcome the child, and everybody waves hello to them.
Set up group activities for children to choose as they settle in, move around, and explore. Create a “settling station” with drawing, picture/audio books and music. Provide a home corner for children suffering from separation anxiety.
Create a “making faces” activity in a tuff tray for the “movers”. Cut circles out of cardboard, make three or four holes around the top, thread pipe cleaners into each hole, and secure.
Let children thread coloured beads or cereal “O”s onto the hair. For the “shakers”, provide small milk containers or plastic pots with lids alongside materials to fill them, e.g. beads, dry beans, lentils/rice, and buttons.
Many children like to know what the day ahead will bring and find it helpful when settling in at nursery to see a list or timetable of the day’s activities.
Some may start by using it simply as a reference to count down until home time. Share laminated pictures you are going to use with the children so they become more familiar.
At the beginning of each day or session, point out the list and invite children to say what they think is going to happen.
Perhaps the order could be changed sometimes to see if they notice, or invite the children to use the pictures to compile their own schedule.
Books are brilliant resources for supporting children through significant transitions, such as moving rooms at nursery or settling in at “big” school.
First Day at Bug School by Sam Lloyd is a reassuring rhyming story that helps soothe anxieties; the children can sing with the crickets, count spots on ladybirds, and try jumping like fleas in PE.
Alternatively, share the classic Starting School by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, which takes children from the very first day to the end of the school year.
Introduce a puppet to the children – large hand puppets work well, as they appear to speak and have more personality.
Choose a name for the puppet and invite the children to ask questions about how the puppet is feeling. If it is feeling sad or says it has no friends, how could the children cheer it up?
Use the puppet to support children who are struggling to settle or make friends.
Explain to children that they are going to “build a friend”. Invite a child to lie down on a piece of stiff paper or cardboard and draw around their body before cutting it out.
Use collage and paint to create a model friend. Brainstorm some words to describe a good friend and scribe them onto post-it notes to add to the picture. Try kind, loyal, patient, honest, and funny.
Display the friend at a “friendship stop” so children know where to go when they are feeling lonely.
Share Kind by Alison Green. The book introduces different ideas of kind acts, such as smiling, hugging, caring, not leaving people out, and celebrating diverse families. Explain how being kind to each other is what friends are supposed to do.
Start a “Kindness Jar”. Every time someone does a kind act, let them put a button or glass marble into the jar. Offer the children rewards such as free “choosing time” or a special outdoor activity when the jar is full.
Encourage children to introduce themselves when settling in at nursery by drawing self-portraits and then displaying them next to photographs.
Ask them to paint pictures of their families, and ask keyworkers to scribe the names and share what they like to do at home. Display the pictures so children can see their finished work on the walls.
Children starting in Reception could fill an “All about me” bag with two or three items that are special to them so they can show and tell their classmates about themselves.
This is a good game for recognising things that children have in common with each other and celebrating their differences.
Invite a group of children to stand in a circle and play “Cross the Circle”. Ask for a volunteer and give them an instruction on how to cross the circle.
These can range from simple movements such as jumping/hopping/stomping to more imaginative ideas such as move like a… ballerina/astronaut/frog/snake/train/plane, and so on.
Extend the game to swap places if you’re wearing red/blue/orange… or if you have black hair/blue eyes/ red shoes. The children must swap places with another child.
Sharing books with children is a helpful way to tackle subjects such as diversity and inclusion. Share You Choose by Nick Sharratt and talk about making different choices of where they would like to go, different families and friends, which clothes they like to wear and games they want to play.
Who Are You? by Smriti Halls is another conversation starter for younger children to talk about diversity and choices.
My Family, Your Family by Laura Henry-Allain MBE is a helpful book for talking about different families.
Visit the BookTrust website to find more helpful suggestions for books about celebrating differences.
Parents can often be very anxious when their children are starting nursery or school. Their concerns may centre around handing over the responsibility for their child’s welfare and happiness to somebody else, possibly for the first time, so it becomes a huge milestone for the whole family.
Early years practitioners need to be consistent in communication, confident and reassuring, and sensitive to each parent’s feelings.
Try to share daily routines with home, and if possible, during the day use communication platforms to send positive messages and images to the child’s online learning diary.
Always make time to talk to parents when they pick their children up and share key moments/concerns from their child’s day.
Jude Harries is an author and teacher of music and drama, with experience of working with children aged nine months to 11 years.
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