The Night Before Kindergarten

I adored this book for two reasons. First, the language in the book uses the identical rhythm used in the poem of “Twas the Night before Christmas,” a story in which almost all children have heard at least once in their lifetime. For example, ‘Twas the night before kindergarten, and as they prepared, kids were excited and a little bit scared.” The use of the rhythm allows for a connection and a feeling of comfort that is inviting the reader to continue reading along with the rhyme in mind.
Second, the story depicts the nerves and anticipation of the night before and on the morning of the first day of kindergarten by using the illustrations to show how children and parents both react to the first day of school. For example, show more “The children were happy. They loved Miss Sunrise! It was she who was in for a giant surprise.” The illustrations depicted children laughing and playing, making crafts, and making friends. The next page states “When what to her wondering eyes should appear but sad moms and dads who were holding back tears! Theirs noses—so sniffy! Their eyes—red and wet! This was the saddest good-bye Miss Sunrise had seen yet!” The illustrations showed all of the parents huddled in the door way sniffling and holding back tears with sad and gloomy faces.
The main idea of this story is to show children and parents that the first day of kindergarten is full of crazy emotions both good and bad. However, by the end of the day the kids realize that school is fun and there was nothing to worry about. The parents learned that it was ok that their kids were having fun without them because they were growing up. show less

This story sets new words to the rhyme scheme and rhythm of the old poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas, creating a story about experiencing kindergarten for the first time. The author did a good job of matching sentences and words to the rhyme so that it never felt forced, but retained the same fluid jollity of the the original. Nonetheless, because the Night Before Christmas poem is so prevalent, it still feels like a copy when you read it. The story is about the excitement in preparing for kindergarten the night before, the nerves and anticipation on the morning of, and the ease with which the children join their new class while their parents struggle to see them go. The twist at the end is funny, as are the bright and colorful show more illustrations. Although I prefer original narratives, it is fun to sometimes read stories that are new in content but familiar in rhythm. Also, this is a great book for children who are about to enter kindergarten (as my oldest did this year), with its positive story and a poem format perfectly suited for oral reading. show less

Such a cute book!

This is a delightful long poem with adorable illustrations and encouragement for all soon-to-be kindergartners. I find this book especially precious because the first of my own grandchildren is about to enter kindergarten soon. I can identify with the teary-eyed parents of the kindergartners in this book. This book is a stark, but loving, reminder of how quickly our children grow up!

There are many getting-ready-for-school books. This one is enjoyable because it uses rhyme in the style of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (which is familiar to many children) as well as gentle humor. For example, it's the parents who cry and feel sad---not the children! The plot focuses mostly on the tasks needed to get ready and only slightly touches on fears. A good book that addresses children's real fears about school and change is "Wemberly Worried."

This would be a fun book for a kindergarten teacher to read the first day with her/his class. They could then talk about what each child did to get ready for the first day. They could even create a class chart and tally how many children did the activities listed in the book in show more order to be ready for their first day of kindergarten! The children could then illustrate themselves doing one of the tasks, which could be hung up to show the children's first-day work (handwriting, etc) compared to their work later in the school year. show less

Very cute book. Great take off of the book "Twas The Night Before Christmas". This is a great book about the fears that most kids go through before their first day of Kindergarten. The twist was the kids were not the ones crying in the end, it was actually the parents.I read this to my Kindergarten class on the first day. The kids were able to relate a lot to the story about the things they did before Kindergarten. Written in a poetic tone with rhyme. I thought the illustrations were great as well.

Similar to the rhyming story, The Night Before Christmas, this books takes a crazy spin to tell of the thoughts of the children before their first day of Kindergarten. It tells of schools buses, supplies and homework dancing around in their curious minds. I thought that the pictures were colorful and bright. The vocabulary in the book was not difficult for younger readers to figure out. They actually could probably guess the word that would come next, based on the rhyming pattern the book had

The Night Before Kindergarten is an adorably illustrated poem that tells the story of a girl preparing for her first day of kindergarten. It's written to the same rhythm as the classic Christmas poem Twas the Night Before Christmas, so many children may enjoy hearing "new words" to the poem. As well as being good for addressing first day anxieties, it could also be a fun language arts lesson for a poetry unit with some of your older students. She also has a version of the book called The Night Before First Grade if you're a first grade teacher or the parent of a first grader.