The Kissing Hand Story-related Literacy Pack for Preschoolers

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The Kissing Hand Story-related Literacy Pack for Preschoolers

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Even when my center doesn’t close during the Summer, I like to start the new school year with activities around one of my favorite books, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. This super-sweet book talks about a little raccoon named Chester thatwhoafraid to go to school, and his mother shares a family secret called The Kissing Hand.  She kisses the middle of his hand to let him know that her love will always be with him, no matter where he is.

I have created a FREE literacy pack with multiple activities to go along with this book, which you can download at the end of this post.  In the meantime, I would like to tell you what I have included and give you some ideas of activities you can do, to take advantage of this wonderful book. 

Start by showing them the pictures in the book without reading. Use the opportunity to ask questions and let them comment about what they see.  Then read the story.

When I read a book, I like to use pointers to mark the words as I’m reading.  That is an easy and very efficient way to show preschoolers that you read from left to right and top to bottom and that words have meaning. 

I included these 15 FREE pointers, one for each of the animals that appear in the story with real pictures, for you to use with this book.  They are part of The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack. You just have to print them in white cardstock, laminate them, and glue them to jumbo craft sticks, for easier use.

Literacy

The development of literacy skills includes awareness of books and prints, knowing the relationships between letters and sounds that makeup words, vocabulary development, and understanding stories.  It is a process that starts from the very beginning of a child’s life, and it is the base for his or her future language development and the ability to read, write, and overall learn.  If a child cannot read, it will be impossible for him or her to learn important concepts such as Math and Science, and understand the world around him or her.

Reading Aloud and Emergent Comprehension

Questions about the story

Before reading review the parts of the book:  cover, title, author, illustrator, spine, and back.  Show them the cover and ask them what type of animals they think are those.  Tell them they are raccoons, nocturnal mammals.  Explain what a mammal is.

During reading ask who, what, where, when, and why questions, such as:

• Who are the main characters of the story?
• Where is the story taking place?
• Why do you think Chester is afraid to go to school?
• What do you think will happen when he gets to school?

Also, ask open-ended questions. Open-ended questions are the ones that can have multiple answers, such as questions about the student’s life experiences. 

After reading ask questions about the story, such as:

• How did Chester feel after his mom kissed his hand?
• What other animals did you see in the book?
• How would Chester’ve felt if his mom didn’t kiss his hand?

Retelling the story

Gather the children in a circle on the floor.  Place a green bed sheet or a grass-looking carpet in the middle of the circle, and tell them that it represents the base of the school tree.

Print several copies of the props I provided in The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack using white cardstock.  Cut them out and laminate them.  Distribute the story props among the students and encourage them to retell the story using their props.  They should place the props in the “base of the tree” to act out the story.  When the activity is complete, place the props in the Listening or Library Center, to invite the children to retell the story on their own.

Oral Language and Vocabulary Development

If you use a Word Wall, add t15 Word Wall Cards provided in The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack with the names of the animals that appear in the story, to teach them to your students.  Print them in white cardstock, cut them out to separate them, and laminate them for durability.

After you present each of the cards, encourage your children to use each Word Wall word in a short sentence or talk about the animal they see in each of them.  This practice will help them with their vocabulary development and conversation skills.

Letter and Sound Knowledge

It is important that children learn the names of the letters and then the sounds that each letter makes.  This will set the foundation to be able to put the phonemes together to form syllables and then words later on.

To practice their letter knowledge, I created three different activities.  These are:

Chester’s Letter Recognition Activity

I included this activity as part of The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack. Print out Chester’s face and letter fish in white cardstock and cut out its mouth.  Laminate it to make it last longer, cut out the interior of the mouth, and glue it in a square tissue paper box painted grey (make sure you cut out the hole for the mouth in the box as well).  Then invite your students to select a fish to feed Chester, say the letter name or sound or both (according to the child’s level), and push the fish inside Chester’s mouth.

Chester’s Friends Letter Match

This cute activity is part of The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack and comes with five different animals with all the lowercase letters of the alphabet and matching trunks with the uppercase letters.  Print them all out in white cardstock, cut them out, and laminate them to make them last longer.  Invite the children to select an animal, say the name of the letter name or sound, or both (according to the child’s level), and place the animal on top of the matching trunk.

Chester’s ABC Maze

This Chester’s ABC Match activity is part of The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack. Have the children review the alphabet by using a dot-to-dot marker to mark each letter of the alphabet in the correct order, to help Chester get to school.  Encourage them to say the names of the letters as they go.

Phonological Awareness and Phonics

Kissing Letters

Remind your students that words are made up of individual letters.  Say one of the vocabulary words, then spell it using your Word Wall Cards.  Ask the children to blow kisses every time you say a letter.

Chester’s Blends

Remind your children that Chester is a little raccoon and imagine that they are going to teach the little raccoon how to read, by blending the sounds to make words.  Call out the vocabulary words, one phoneme at a time, and ask the students to practice blending the sounds to form the words.

These are some examples of the words you can use:

raccoon – /r /a/ /c/ /o/ /n/; rabbit – /r/ /a/ /b/ /i/  /t/;  fox – /f/ /o/ /x/; deer – /d/ /e/ /e/ /r/.

Emergent Writing

Helping Chester Go to School

After reading the story, encourage the children to help Chester go to school by tracing the path using a crayon, marker, or pencil, on the sheet provided in The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack.  If you want to reuse the activity, you just have to print it out in white cardstock and laminate it, or place it inside a dry-erase pocket and let children use a dry-erase marker to trace.

Tracing Letters and Words

The Kissing Hand Literacy Pack includes 15 tracing letters and word sheets, one for each of the animals that appear in the story.  Print each page using white cardstock and laminate them or place them in dry-erase pockets to make them last longer, and use them multiple times.  Invite the children to use a dry-erase marker to trace the letters and words.

This activity is great for strengthening the children’s language, letter recognition, pre-writing, and fine motor skills.  To extend the activity you can:

• Teach or review letter sounds and names.
• Spell the words.
• Match each letter and word with wooden, foam, or magnetic letters.
• Copy the letters and words with pencils, crayons, or markers.

Write a Class Story to Make a Book

During circle time invite your children to create a story, reminding them that the story has to have a beginning, middle, and end.  Use a chart paper to take dictation.

You can encourage them by starting with something like “On my first day of school….”.

When the story is finished, print it out and have the students illustrate the story.  Put it together as a book for the library, and make a copy for each of the authors.

Songs, Fingerplay, and Rhymes

I found these cute poems and fingerplays in teachingheartnet.com that you can use with this story during circle time, for example.

The Kissing Hand

It’s my first day of Kindergarten
And I’m thinking of you.
I made these precious handprints
So you will think of me, too.

It’s my first day of school
And “The Kissing Hand” is what we read.
It’s about a raccoon
Who did just as his parents said.

Like the raccoon’s first day at school
I was scared and a little shy.
But because of what you said
I was brave and I got by.

All through the year
I’ll make more things for you.
So as I change and I learn
You can witness my growth, too!

Raccoon, Raccoon

Raccoon, raccoon (make a mask around your eyes with your fingers)
Up in a tree (both arms raised)
Raccoon, raccoon,
You can’t see me. (cover eyes)
Raccoon, raccoon,
I can see you. (one hand on your eyes, one pointing to imaginary raccoon)
Eating fish and corn (eating motions)
And bird’s eggs too.
Raccoon, raccoon,
Hunting at night (hands shade eyes as if squinting in the dark)
Raccoon, raccoon,
Sleeps in daylight. (sleeping motion)

Raccoon, Raccoon by Pam Miller

Raccoon, raccoon, (each time you kind of make a mask around your eyes with your fingers)
Up in a tree, (both arms raised)
Raccoon, Raccoon, You can’t see me. (cover eyes)
Raccoon, raccoon, I can see you (one hand on your eyes, one pointing out to imaginary raccoon)
Eating fish and corn and birds’ eggs too. (imitate eating motions)
Raccoon, raccoon, Hunting at night, (hands shade eyes as if squinting in the dark)
Raccoon, raccoon, Sleeps in daylight. (the usual sleeping motion we all do)

I also found this song on YouTube.

To finish the first day you can give each child a big cut-out heart.  Have them draw themselves in the middle.  Ask each of them what they want to tell their families about the day, and write each child’s exact words in a corner of their hearts after you ask permission.  Have them paste their hearts in construction paper to bring to their families, and include a small bag with Hershey’s Kisses chocolates as a gift.

Other Raccoon-Related Books

You can always read and add more books about raccoons and other forest animals to your library and other centers, to give children wide learning experiences and variety to choose from.  I’m sure the previous activities will spice their curiosity, and these books could be an excellent source of knowledge. You can find these books at your local library, used book store, and on Amazon. The titles have my affiliate links, that will take you directly to the right Amazon page.

• Raccoons! by Hope Aicher.  This book is a collection of full-color photos and fun, interesting facts about raccoons.

• Exploring the World of Raccoons by Tracy C. Read.  Describes the natural history of these animals and explains how that heritage helps them thrive in cities as well as in fields and woodlands.

• Love You S’More by Melinda Lee Rathjen.  In this little book, two competitive raccoons realize that with all that love, everyone wins. 

• Kiss Those Toes by Rainstorm Publishing.  This sweet, rhyming story follows a group of forest animals as they play a game of hide-and-seek with their children and playfully kiss their toes, noses, cheeks, and bellies when they find them.

• Raccoon on His Own by Jim Arnosky.  When a baby raccoon is swept downstream in an abandoned canoe, he feels afraid. But soon he notices all kinds of things he has never seen before, and from the safety of his little boat, he begins to explore the world around him. 

Pin It For Later

If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin it to one of your Pinterest boards for later.

Finally, if you want to use this book throughout the first week, I will suggest including the math and science activities I created for this story, to take advantage of and make your teaching teacher. Both include a FREE pack of printables that you can use, which you can find below.

Don’t forget to grab your FREE literacy pack. You only have to click on the link below, for immediate download.

Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

Love,

P.D. Please let me know if you like any of these ideas worked for you, or if you think I need to add or replace something.  My goal is to help you in any way I can and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find useful. Also, if you come up with different ideas and want to share them, I would love to post them as well.

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