Preschool Activities on Saying Goodbye to People

Good Manners

• The best way to teach a child the habit of good manners is to model it yourself. If you expect him to say goodbye when he leaves the classroom or the house, establish a routine of saying goodbye. When you are leaving, even for a five minute errand, make a point to wave and say goodbye. When someone else is leaving, establish a short goodbye "ceremony." This might involve singing your goodbyes, learning how to say goodbye in different languages or a silly goodbye dialogue that becomes a family tradition. In the classroom, take time at the end of the day to do a goodbye song or fingerplay and communicate all the fun things you have planned for the next day or the next week when you see the children again. Offer personal goodbyes to each child as she gets picked up and express glad anticipation of seeing her again to establish a sense of routine permanence.

Separation Anxiety

• If your child will be going to preschool for the first time or tends to be clingy, help prepare him mentally by practicing separation starting with short periods of time and working up to the duration of the school day. For instance, ask a friend to watch him for five minutes while you run to the store or even just outside. Let him know you will be back in five minutes and keep your word. As you extend the separation time and return when you promised, you build his sense of the passage of time and his trust and confidence both in himself to endure the separation and in you do keep your promises and be there when you said you would.

Transitions

• A child who is moving or graduating to another classroom at the end of a school year may suffer the grief of missing the people to whom she has grown attached. The change involves saying goodbye to familiar people and places and heading to the unknown which frightening to a young child. So he may want to cling to the familiar. Take your cue from the child as to how the transition is affecting her. Let her make a personally significant gift that has meaning to her and the recipient in the context of their relationship. Let the children express their feelings about the changes and acknowledge the emotional turmoil they are feeling.

Death

• Death is the ultimate goodbye and one that preschoolers struggle to understand when the deceased is a parent, grandparent or other close loved one, or even a pet. Let children ask questions and express their feelings honestly. Some may like to draw pictures or dictate stories about their memories of the person. Others may need to work out their emotions with physical activity. Watch and listen carefully for how to help each individual child through a confusing and difficult time in his life.