Campus Tour Activities for Kindergarten

Online Prep

• Chances are that by the time your child is school-ready he has enough tech-time experiences to use a computer -- along with you -- to take a virtual tour of his kindergarten school. While an in-person tour can provide your child with a concrete way to explore his new school, an online picture-based prep session can help to put him at ease as well. If your child, or the other kids in the class, can't get to the school before the first day, work with the teacher to update her website with campus tour photos. Although the kids can't yet read detailed descriptions, you can add in some wording for the parents or try using an audio component in which the teacher explains each part of the classroom or building.

Follow the Leader

• Instead of unleashing a gaggle of 5- and 6-year-olds on the school, plan a campus tour activity that includes a follow the leader type of game. Using follow the leader as your main tour activity will keep the kids in line, help them to focus and add a hint of fun to the orientation period. Start with yourself, another parent who is knowledgeable about the school's floor plan or the teacher at the head of the line. Ask the kids to line up -- in a single-file line -- behind the adult and follow her around the classroom and the building. The follow the leader line should stop at key points such as the classroom reading center, the restrooms, the cafeteria, the gym and the principal's office.

Scavenger Hunt

• Set up a scavenger hunt around your child's kindergarten campus to help the kids explore the school in a game-play way. Create cute clues such as "Find the place where we read books" or "Go to the room where we eat lunch." Leave more clues at the next spot, creating a series of questions that eventually lead back to the kindergarten classroom. Divide the kids up into groups of three or more, providing each team with an adult leader to read the questions and supervise the students.

I Spy

• Why walk around the kindergarten campus telling the little learners where to look when they can get interactive and play a central role in the tour? Play a fun-filled game of I Spy in which you ask the students to spy "with their little eyes" a specific part of their classroom or another room in the building. For example, gather the kids together and say, "I spy with my little eye something that holds the paint and crayons." The children must then answer, "the art area or art cart."