We did a unit on The Kissing Hand by Audrey Wood during the first week of kindergarten. In this story, Chester is a little raccoon who is worried about starting school for the first time. To make him feel better, his mommy kissed his hand and told him to hold the kiss to his cheek whenever he felt sad. Here are some of the things we did after reading the story.
Each student made a "Chester" puppet. Chester is the main character in the book.
Everyone made a brown hand print. Later, we colored and cut out the heart at the bottom of the page and pasted it in the middle of the hand. The worksheet says, "Ask me to tell you the story of The Kissing Hand."
I made "kissing hand cookies" for the children's snack time. I purchased a hand print cookie cutter at a craft store and used Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Before cooking, I put a Hershey's kiss in the center of each cookie. I got this idea from Mailbox magazine.
Here are some of the children with their "kissing hands!"
This year our PTA provided stickers with lips for teachers to pass out to parents on the first day of school. Parents put the sticker on their child's hand, kissed it, and told them to hold it to their own cheek if they felt sad or worried during the day.
When I have more time, I will add a link to some of the back to school books we read and other great kissing hand sites. Check back soon.
Graphics from the following pages:
