Start the day off with an introductory song. You can make an art activity a learning activity and add a song for a fun first-day experience. Begin by tracing the letter of each pupil's first name. Allow each child to decorate his letter using crayons, stickers and other craft supplies. End the first day of class teaching the children a song you can sing every day at the end of class. Use each pupil's first name for each line of the song. As his name is called, each child should raise the letter he designed. The song can sound something like "G is for Grace, Grace starts with G, Grace, Grace, Grace."
Try to include reading in each class to improve pupils' vocabulary. Reading on the first day of class is a light and fun activity to help the preschoolers feel at ease in the new environment. Make sure you show the children the pictures, and read slowly with enthusiasm and emotion in your voice to keep interests piqued. Stop every so often and ask the children to identify words or recognize letters. Finish story time with a discussion of the story line, characters and keywords.
By preschool age most children know the tune, if not all of the alphabet song. Start them off with a language activity that incorporates physical activity as well. Sing the alphabet song a few times with the pupils so everyone knows the tune. Stop on the first letter and say, "A is for animal; act like an animal." The pupils can crawl on all fours like a dog, swim like a fish and so on. You can continue this activity every day while going through each consecutive letter of the alphabet. Keep a poster of the letters of the alphabet on a bulletin board in the classroom and use a pointer to point to each letter as you sing it so the children also recognize the appearance of each letter.
Provide the children with an activity page full of fun and language-related work. Each page should represent a single letter of the alphabet. Include pictures of common items starting with the represented letter. Items such as animals, articles of clothing and modes of transportation seem easy to identify for preschool-age children. Add a row of traceable upper- and lower-case examples of the represented letter. You can create the pages ahead of time and laminate them for easy cleanup and reuse for years to come. While working on each page, discuss with the children the sound each letter makes and the pictures relating to the letter on each page.