Transition issues and a question

So my son is having issues transitioning from K where when he was finished, he would go play with legos or in the home center to first grade where when he is finished all there is to do is chat because there are not play centers. He is getting in lots of trouble for chatting, so much so, he had to write me a note about it. Any tips? He told me he was bored because when he was done there was nothing to do.

On a side note, in public school, do the Kindergartens have play centers still or are they set up like formal classrooms like in first?

 

Oh, poor kid. I hated that and always got into so much trouble! It is almost like you get punished for completing your work quickly by being made to sit and do nothing. Maybe you could talk to the teacher about what his options are when he is done with his work. Hopefully she isn't one of those teachers that make you put your head down and sit quietly. That's a lot to ask from a little kid with energy to spare!

Some ideas:
-Read a book (maybe keep a couple of books from home in his desk just for this)
-Color a picture
-Keep a journal where he can write (I know they can't write too much at this age, but you could make one where each page has a title like "What is you favorite color? What are some things that are that color that you like?" etc.)

Many teachers actually have a list of things that they tell kids they can do (but unfortunately not all). Maybe you could find out if she has a list or would be interested in starting one. Here is a post from a teacher's forum where they are discussing ideas. There are some really good suggestions there.

 

STacy suggested what I was going to.

Even post a not (pictures or writing or both) at his seat to remind him what his choices are.

My DD are transitioning from Preschool to 1st and it has been interesting. One DD is always finished early---- she has taken to drawing at that time since she loves to draw it is no big deal.

Does the teacher have seat 'play' activities? Like a desk puzzle, word search, seek and find, math manioulatives, etc that he could get out when he is done?

I know our public K do centers. 1st does centers on Fri (not like play spaces, but tables with different activities set up and they choose) only.

 

In 1st, my boys classes would have a book basket on each "table" of desks, so that if they finished early, there was always a selection of appropriate books available. Also, one teacher had a packet of seat work, that was kept in the desk to be finished by Friday. So, kids could work through it at their own pace.

 

Our K classrooms here have centers, but there is a specific time for those centers. Our K classes are set up no different than first grade classrooms. I'm not really sure what my kids do after they finish their work, I'm not sure they are at that point yet in K, I think they are still doing whole group activities, so there is not much "free time" after.

I know they don't call them play centers here though, they are application centers and are geared towards the curriculum and learning.


I would ask the teacher what are some things he can do after he finishes his work.

 

We have centers here in k. 1st is in the same school so the class room set uP is very similar. I'd too talk to the teacher about extra things he could do. This is usually a sign of a "gifted" student and from my experience gifted children cause more havoc when bored