from Discipline and the Difficult Child

You can start the day off by having pictures of Huggy Bear (a big stuffed bear with a school t-shirt on), a Bat (Bat symbolizes a Bat Pat made with your hands like a tall high five and a pat on the back), logs being cut (by shaking hands and sticking up thumbs each party can shake and grab the thumbs and it becomes a saw to cut logs), Ahhhh! Fireworks! (by holding both hands together you can make a snake movement upward, clap your hands at the top and make a whistle noise with your hands open and coming down to look and sound like fireworks) or a special handshake by Rover the red nose dog puppet.

Place these pictures in a big circle and laminate so you can place on the floor. As children enter the classroom they stand on one of the circles declaring what type of a greeting they would like to start their day.

– Gene Bedley