The first day of school is often stressful and anxiety-filled for both children and parents, especially if this is the first day where the children will be away from the parents for an extended amount of time. To gently encourage a child to feel comfortable on the first day of Pre-K, offer each student a piece of drawing paper and have him sit down at a table with other new students. Place a bucket of crayons in the middle, and have everyone draw a picture of themselves on the paper. This will begin the school year with a self-portrait to hang on the wall and allow you to have time to answer any parent questions before the allotted school time begins.
To help a child learn about other children and where she should sit during the course of the day, create a personalized name tag to place on her desk. Take each child to a place in the classroom, and take a Polaroid picture for her name tag. Glue the picture onto the center of the name tag, and allow the children to decorate on the outside edges of the paper around the photo. Once they have finished coloring the name tag, place the paper within two sheets of clear contact paper and firmly press down to seal the paper together. Place at each child's desk.
This activity is ideal for young students and helps new children get acquainted with their new surroundings. Gather all of the children into a group either indoors or outdoors, and designate one child as the looker. That child must find something in the area that everyone may see and give the class clues about what they are looking at. The other children will ask the looker questions, and the child who guesses the right answer will be the new looker.