Below is a sample script that explores the feelings and emotions that many young children (and older children!), experience as they navigate their first day of school. It is hoped that this script might act as a helpful scaffold for teachers to get started using puppets this term. It is not intended to be used exactly as it is presented here. It should be amended to suit your own particular context and the children in your care. Remember – it is not necessary to be an ‘expert’ at using puppets to give them a try. Believe, and the children will believe too!

Puppet: Can I tell you about my first day in my new school?

Teacher to Class: Would you like to hear about (Puppets Name) first day at school?

Class: Opportunity for the children to opt in

Puppet: I was so, so nervous.

Teacher Optional: What does ‘nervous’ mean I wonder?

Puppet: Have any of you ever felt nervous?

Class: {Opportunity for children to share experiences of feeling nervous with the puppet}

Puppet: Thank you for telling me those stories. It helps me to know that I am not the only one who feels nervous! When I felt nervous going to school…it felt like I had a pain in my tummy. I told my mammy, but she said that it wasn’t really a pain, it was that I was feeling nervous. She said it was normal to feel nervous going to a new school. It didn’t feel very normal to me. I felt sick. I was scared. What if the teacher was cross? And what if the other children didn’t like me, and wouldn’t play with me? I knew some of the other children going to my new school – Ryan, and Jack. They were in my old playschool. But what if they didn’t want to be my friends anymore? There were so many things to worry about.

Teacher Optional: Did anyone here feel worried about their first day at school? What kinds of things did you worry about?

Puppet: When we got to the school, the door at the front was open and there were lots of children and mammies and daddies and grannies and grandads all going in and out. It was so busy. It was so noisy. My tummy pain got even worse. But mammy held my hand, and she said everything would be okay. We walked in the door and found my new classroom – mammy knew which one it was. It had a yellow door. I like yellow. My new teacher was at the door and he was smiling and saying ‘Hello (Puppet name)! He looked nice and friendly, and I felt a little bit better then. He told me that I could go inside and play with any of the toys that were on the tables. He said that mammy could stay a while too. I was very happy when he said that. I felt…oh…what is that word again. It begins with ‘r’…RELIEVED! Yes, I felt relieved.

Teacher Optional: Relieved! That is a new word isn’t it, what does ‘relieved’ feel like I wonder?

Puppet: So I went inside, and I put my bag and my coat over on the coat rack. Mammy helped me. Then I sat down at a table that had Lego on it. I love Lego – it is one of my favourite things to play! There was a girl at my table, her name was Jane. Her daddy said that she liked Lego too, so that made me feel good. And then Ryan and Jack arrived and they sat down at my table. I felt happy then and I forgot all about the pain in my tummy! I was having lots of fun in school, it wasn’t so bad after all. That was until…the teacher suddenly said out loud ‘Okay grown-ups, it’s time to go now. The children and I have lots of fun things to do today, we are going to be very busy!’ Oh no! The pain in my tummy was back again, I felt sick. I looked at my mammy, and I felt like I was going to cry. She smiled at me and gave me a big squeeze and whispered ‘you’ll be okay; I will see you soon’. I tried so hard to be brave as she walked out the door, but then I felt tears rolling down my cheeks and I felt all hot and upset. The teacher came over to me and wiped my tears. He was nice and gentle. He said that I would be okay and that we were going to do lots of nice things today and that my mam would be back soon. I asked him – ‘but how far away is soon?’.

Puppet: ‘How far away is soon?’ he asked out loud to all the boys and girls, ‘well that is a good question! Let me show you’. He walked up to the front of the room and pointed to a line of pictures. At the very top of the line there was a picture of children singing, then a picture of children eating, then a picture of children playing outside, next was a picture of children listening to a story and finally a picture of a house. The teacher pointed to the picture at the very top and he said: ‘first we are going to sing some songs about our names, then we will have a snack, next we will go outside to play and then we will listen to a story before our mammies came back to bring us HOME!

Teacher Optional: We have pictures like that too, don’t we? Our Visual Timetable – it helps to show us what time of the day it is, what activities we are doing, and how many things we have left to do before we go home. Are there any other things that you can think of that would have helped (Puppet name) to feel better?

Puppet: Suddenly, soon didn’t seem like too long away, and all those things looked like lots of fun! I felt much better, and as we made a big circle on the floor and started singing, I soon forgot all about the pain in my tummy! I think I am going to like my new school!