You'll have to sit in her room give her something that she likes and just tell her.

We have a daughter in first grade now and will be repeating it next year.  We told her that we thought it was best that stayed in first grade another year so that she could be perfect at it.  Our daughter struggled really bad in reading and math and has a hard time retaining what she's learned.  She doesn't understand, but assured her that next year first grade will be much easier for her and that she can help the teacher becasue she will know a lot of things that the new first graders won't know.  She will appreciate us later for it.  Signed, A caring mother

My daughter had to repeat 1st grade also. It felt like the end of the world to her then, within 2 weeks of the second year of 1st grade she was more then okay..she was able to do the work with ease and she was happy that she now had friends in 2nd and 1st grade. At this age it is not such a big deal to the kids as it is to us parents! She will take the news better then we did..

Hi, we had to repeat our son in Kindergarten,  I really sold it to him - he would be able to Mrs P's special helper - help with the new children - be a little bit older - I also stressed that he would still see and play with his friends - he accepted this but every now and then asks why?  I have found that this is much harder on the parents than the child - we only want their best interests at heart.... we agonized over this decision but I can tell you that it is the best thing we ever did... children are much better off repeating before grade 3 than later on....  just be truthful to your daughter...  I also told our son that their are lots of other people out there who have a practice run and that this year is the real deal.  I also found it helpful to find other children and parents who have dealt with it and get tips from them.  Hope this helps...  there will be tears but it will be worth it in the long run.

I think you should mention that you and the teachers, did not place her in the correct grade.  That the grown ups need to make a correction in the placement that they made for her.  Place her in the correct grade for her and she will be more successful in school.

Tell her she is just not finished learning in 1st grade.

Hi there,
You might be interested in this article about "red shirting" in kindergarten and first. While it's mostly geared towards parents considering grade retention, it has a lot of data about research on the results of holding kids back. Hope it's helpful!