A smooth transition to kindergarten is an essential part of a child's early academic experience, and this handbook aims to make it happen. It is built around a model that has been adopted in many diverse schools and communities, and aims to help professionals and caregivers. Readers will learn how to form a collaborative team, foster strong social connections among children, families and professionals, and create a ""menu"" of transition activities that can be tailored to each child's needs. Also readers will discover how to anticipate barriers, keep families involved, and conduct ongoing assessment, evaluation, and revision of transition activities. They will learn from the experience of others with insight from real families, educators, and school personnel, plus sample menus of activities they can use in their own homes and classrooms.
Overview - a developmental approach to transition, models of transition, guiding principles, planning the transition; form a collaborative team; identify a team coordinator; facilitate plenary meetings; generate ideas for transition activities; create a timeline; anticipate barriers; revise ideas and timeline, implementing the transition plan; implement transition practices, family-school connections, child-school connections, peer connections, community connections, assessing, evaluating, and revising the transition plan; assess, evaluate, and revise, lessons from the field, child characteristics, the collaborative team, overall experiences, three keys to a successful transition.
